Politics and Police

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Why in news?

SC in its recent judgement reinstated T.P. Senkumar, who was replaced as head of the Kerala police soon after the Left Democratic Front assumed office last year.

How significant is this new ruling?

• In 2006, the Supreme Court ruled in the Prakash Singh case that the chief of a State police force should have a fixed tenure of at least two years.
• In this case, SC had given directions to insulate the police from external pressure and political.
• In particular, every State should set up a State Security Commission to both guide the police and decide on top police appointments and transfers according the 2006 land mark judgement.
• Despite this, State governments have failed to protect Directors General of Police from arbitrary transfers.
• In the event of a regime change following an election, new political dispensations reshuffle officers in the civil and police services.
• This ruling limits significantly the discretion enjoyed by the political executive in effecting transfers at whim.
• No longer is it valid for the government to justify a DGP’s removal on the vague ground that it has reached a prima facie conclusion that the public is unhappy with the efficiency of the force.
• The court said the government’s ‘subjective satisfaction’ about the state of affairs must be based on cogent and rational material.

Source: The Hindu