Delhi High Court slams Delhi Police and Home Ministry on poor policing

The Delhi High Court pulled up both the Union Home Ministry as well as the Delhi City Police about the poor policing in the National Capital. The court remarked that “The Home Ministry and Delhi police are ‘playing badminton’ with issue of appointment of 14,000 police personnel,”

The High Court had made these remarks after the Union Home Ministry told the court that the new forensic labs are still not ready and the additional police personnel have still not been recruited. "The (home) ministry (is) sending files to police; police sending back to ministry. Is it a badminton game?" asked an annoyed bench.

The court said that the authorities had been merely "shuttling files" from one department to another without any result. The bureaucrats are "making fool of people, politicians and court", It is alarming that the crimes against women is on the rise. All the bureaucrats are just not interested in work. They don't face the music at all. Politicians face (it) every five years. You (bureaucrats) are just passing files. When will you see light of the day? We are fed up," a division bench of justices B D Ahmed and Siddharth Mridul said.

In the suo motu case taken up after the December 16 gang rape case, the court had been informed that police strength had to be increased, but the decision hasn’t been taken so far. On Wednesday, the counsel for the Ministry of Home Affairs said that the Centre has told Delhi police to ‘review’ the number of people to be appointed.

The court also observed in the light of a PIL on Women’s Safety  whether the Delhi police crime teams actually carry the scientific investigation kits to crime scenes, “I have never seen a proper investigation kit in any of the cases.”, the court remarked.

It directed the Centre to expedite the recruitment process and fixed the next hearing on December 17. The authorities have also been told to expedite the December 2017 deadline for the forensic labs at Sheikh Sarai, Rohini and Sayurpur in Mehrauli.

Pointing out the deteriorating quality of police investigations, the court said, "Most cases end up in acquittal because of lack of investigation. Innocent people are being put in jail and criminals are roaming free. We want to see (that) more chargesheets end up in conviction."

Delhi Police was, however, praised for setting up the special women helpdesks in every police station and running 'one-stop centers’ for victims of sexual abuse. "This is a salutary step and we feel it will go a long way in serving the victims of crime," the bench said.