M A I N   N E W S

Cops ignore name-tag ruling
By Saurabh Malik and Bipin Bhardwaj
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Nov 5 — In violation of the directions issued by the Supreme Court of India, police officials carrying out the arrest or handling the interrogation of a detainee still do not wear name tags specifying their designation.

Cops appearing before the ilaqa magistrates in the district courts, or even before the Judges at the Punjab and Haryana High Court either do not wear the name tags at all, or have these pinned to their Khaki uniform without the designation.

‘‘I have misplaced the tag: I forgot it at home; it broke while the shirt was being washed’’ — are excuses made by the cops when asked about the missing tags during a random survey.

Claiming non-violation of any directive issued by the apex court, UT’s Senior Superintendent of Police Mr. Parag Jain insists: ‘‘In the uniform regulations, there is no provision for having the rank displayed on the name tags. Yes, it should be both in Hindi and English, but here in Chandigarh even that is not required. Otherwise also, the common man recognises the designation by just looking at the uniform’’.

The Supreme Court in the D.K. Basu versus State of West Benga case had, however, clearly held: ‘‘The police personnel carrying out the arrest and handling the interrogation of the arrestee should bear accurate, visible and clear identification and name tags with their designations’’.

The court had added that the ‘‘failure to comply with the requirements apart from rendering the official concerned liable for departmental action, would also render him liable to be punished for contempt of court and the proceedings may be instituted in any High Court of the country, having territorial jurisdiction over the matter’’.

The directions, along with certain other directives, were issued to check the abuse of police power. Mr. Justice Kuldip Singh (now retired) and Mr. Justice A.S. Anand (now the Chief Justice of India) had held that ‘‘efforts must be made to change the attitude and approach of the police personnel handling the investigations so that they do not sacrifice basic human values during interrogation and do not resort to questionable forms of interrogation’’.

Significantly, the SC had held that the process of circulating the requirements to every police station, and to get them notified at a conspicuous place there, was the obligation of the Home Secretary of every Union Territory or the Director General of Police of the state.

In Punjab and Haryana too, the directions are being violated, blatantly. None of the cops in the region wear name tags with the designation as revealed during a survey of Patiala, Panchkula and surrounding areas. Worse, senior police officials are not even aware of the SC directions.

The Superintendent of Police, Ms. Kala Ramachandran, when contacted just before being transferred out of Panchkula, said some of the cops were following the ruling while, others, would be asked to do so.

‘‘The department will have to place an order for new name tags with designations printed on it. It will take some time,’’ she added.

The Patiala SSP, Mr. Harpreet Singh Sidhu, however, claimed that the ruling had been implemented. Interestingly, other senior police officials in Patiala expressed their ignorance about the orders.