SC says it has reservations the way bureaucracy, police officers are behaving in country

The Supreme Court on Friday observed that it has reservations regarding the behaviour of the bureaucracy particularly the police officers in the country.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana said, "I have a lot of reservations at the way of how bureaucracy particularly how police officers are behaving in this country."

The Chief Justice further said that he has considered constituting a standing committee headed by Chief Justices of High Courts to examine the complaints filed against bureaucrats of atrocities committed particularly by the police officers.

CJI Ramana observed, "We are very disturbed by what the bureaucracy, particularly police officers are doing. I was in favour of forming standing committees led by Chief Justices of High Courts to look into complaints of atrocities committed by bureaucrats, particularly police officers, in this country."

The observation came when the court was reserving judgment on petitions filed by the suspended Director of Chhattisgarh Police Academy, Gurjinder Pal Singh, who had sought protection from arrest in various criminal cases, including sedition, extortion and criminal intimidation, arraigned against him by the current government.

Earlier, the apex court had observed that filing of sedition cases when regimes change is a "disturbing trend" and expresses displeasure over the trend of filing sedition cases.

CJI Ramana said, "This is a very disturbing trend in the country and the police department is also responsible for this."

"When a political party is in power, police officials take the side of the particular (ruling) party. Then when another new party comes into power, the government initiates action against the police officials," he added.

1994-batch IPS officer Gurjinder Pal Singh, who had served as the IG of Raipur, Durg and Bilaspur during the earlier BJP rule, was initially booked in the disproportionate assets case following raids at his premises by state's Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and Economic Offences Wing (EOW).

Later, a sedition case was registered against him on the grounds of his alleged involvement in promoting enmity and hatching a conspiracy against the government.

There are a total of three cases registered against Singh. In the sedition and extortion cases, the apex court had earlier granted him relief by directing the Congress-led Chhattisgarh government not to arrest Singh.

The third case against Singh was lodged under the Prevention of Corruption Act for allegedly amassing disproportionate assets. In the third case, the Bench on Friday said that Singh would be at liberty to avail appropriate legal remedy as he had only sought its transfer to the CBI and the stay of the ongoing probe being conducted by the state police.

The Chhattisgarh High Court has refused to quash the sedition case against Singh. He then challenged the High Court order in the top court.

According to the police, the documents recovered during the ACB/EOW raids revealed that Singh was allegedly involved in promoting enmity and hatching a conspiracy against the established government and public representatives and was booked under sedition charges.

He was suspended on July 5 after the ACB/EOW on June 29 had registered an FIR under the Prevention of Corruption Act in connection with the disproportionate assets he had allegedly amassed.

( With inputs from ANI )