Modernisation Of Police Force Of India

This is a “Guest Column” by Mr. Praveen Dalal, Managing Partner of Perry4Law and leading techno-legal expert of India. In this article, Mr. Praveen Dalal has discussed the requirements of modernisation of police force of India. He asserts that ambitious projects like CCTNS, Natgrid, NCTC, Central Monitoring System (CMS), etc requires techno legal expertise. Law enforcement agencies of India must be aware of both technical as well as legal requirements in order to derive maximum benefits out of these projects, asserts Praveen Dalal.

No time in the history of India we needed modernisation of police forces of India than now. Fortunately, there is no dearth of financial resources as even the proposed 2011 budget has provided reasonably good amount for the same. Home Ministry of India recently received a large sum of money from Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. The same would be used for many national security projects of India.

Some of the national security projects that are presently launched by Home Ministry include National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID), Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) Project of India (CCTNS Project), Central Monitoring System (CMS) of India, etc. It does not mean that Indian police force would be modernised and made more efficient immediately. Even there is no guarantee of the same for the next five years till these promises are supported by a political will to execute the same.

The indications are positive and so may be the outcomes. The need of the hour is to purse the commitment till the same is accomplished. Many crucial projects in India have failed because though they were started with the right planning and commitment yet till the end neither planning nor commitment survived.

India cannot afford to adopt this lax strategy at this crucial period of time when cyber crimes and cyber attacks, terrorism and cyber terrorism, organised crimes, trans border crimes, white collar crimes, etc are plaguing India.

With the active use of technology, these crimes have further been made difficult to trace as well as to be prosecuted. For instance, it took Computer Emergency Response Team-India (CERT-In) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) four months to ascertain the basic level information about the attackers who defaced CBI’s website.

At this stage it would be imperative to mention the importance of suitable training to law enforcement manpower. The ambitious projects CCTNS, NATGRID, Unique Identification Project of India (UID Project), etc cannot survive in the long run in the absence of suitable Policies, Trainings and Legal Framework.

Equally important are the issues of Legal Empowerment of Law Enforcement Machinery in India. India is negligent in formulating good laws governing the law enforcement machinery. In the absence of good legislative provisions, the performance of police force cannot be expected to be good. It is only now that the Central Bureau of Investigation Act 2010 and Delhi Police Act have been drafted. They would be presented in the Parliament of India and may become enforceable law one day. Besides, political interferences in the day to day functioning of police forces in India must be minimised.

With positive hints being given by Indian Government, we can expect some good legislative steps by Parliament of India in the forthcoming session. A good law bringing transparency, accountability, flexibility and autonomy to police forces in India is the urgent need of the hour. I wish Indian Parliament all the best in this regard.

The Intelligence Services (Powers and Regulation) Bill, 2011

Has it ever occurred to you that the law enforcement agencies that helps in the upholding the laws of India are themselves not governed by any law. This equally applies to intelligence agencies of India. In fact, intelligence infrastructure of India is in big mess and India is not at all ready for projects like CCTNS, Natgrid, NCTC, etc.

It is no surprise that the central bureau of India (CBI) is also not governed by any law and it is operating in India without any law. It is only now that the central bureau of investigation act 2010 was drafted. Till now it is a mere draft and has not become an enforceable law. Even the constitutional validity of the national investigation agency act 2008 is doubtful.

India has been indifferent towards legal framework for law enforcement and intelligence agencies for long. This may also be attributable to the fact that Centre State relationship is very complicated and law enforcement is a State subject for legislation. However, the net result was that law enforcement and intelligence agencies of India are not regulated by any Parliamentary oversight. Even there is no lawful interception law in India and India does not bother to maintain a balance between national security and fundamental rights of Indians.

In this background the recent circulation of the draft Intelligence Services (Powers and Regulations) Bill, 2011 (Draft Intelligence Bill 2011) in the Lok Sabha came as a pleasant surprise. Presently, Intelligence Agencies of India are not governed by any Legal Framework and they are not under Parliamentary Scrutiny, informs Praveen Dalal, leading techno legal expert of India and a Supreme Court lawyer. This is a serious “Constitutional Issue” as exercise of Law Enforcement and Intelligence Powers without any “Constitutionally Valid Law” is serious violations of Constitutional provisions, opines Dalal. Finally, some sort of law making has been sought that would also bring Transparency and Accountability among the Intelligence Operations in India, suggests Dalal.

However, the proposed Bill requires some fine tuning before it is finally passed. According to Dalal there are many “Techno Legal and Constitutional Issues” that are “still missing” from the Bill. The Bill is a very good beginning though it requires many “improvements” before it is finally passed by both the Houses of Parliament. I hope and wish the Modified and Improved Bill would become an applicable law very soon, says Dalal.

Whatever the fate of the Bill may be, at least a good beginning has been made. It would have been better if opinion and suggestions of techno legal experts would have also been incorporated. But still something is better than nothing.