Patna High Court Constitutes Committee To Ensure Speedy Construction Of Buildings For Police Stations In Bihar

The Patna High Court has constituted a committee headed by the development commissioner of the state to ensure speedy construction of adequate police stations in the State of Bihar.

A division bench of Justice CS Singh and Justice Madhuresh Prasad said, "We express our concern over the fact that in such matters which would have been normally taken care of by the Executive, this Court has been compelled to take suo motu notice of lack of Police Station buildings in the State of Bihar, which has resulted into registration of present writ petition in the nature of Public Interest Litigation".

The court had earlier appointed Dr. Kamal Kishore Singh, the Additional Director General of Police (Modernization), Bihar, as an Officer of the Court in light of the nature of the issues that were raised in the suo motu Public Interest Litigation (PIL), concerning the infrastructure of police stations in the state. 

Dr. Singh earlier this month submitted a comprehensive report detailing the number of notified police stations, the number of such police stations with their own buildings, and the number of such police stations operating in rented premises. The report also included a list of such Police Stations that are no longer operational.

After going through the report, the court noted, “The facts emerging from the figures as disclosed in the said report as regards work status as on 14.02.2023 are glaring. It transpires from the said figures that out of total 438 works sanctioned from the financial year 2017-18 to 2022-23, 35 works have been completed. Percentage of work completed out of total work sanctioned is minuscule to the extent of 15.19 per cent approximately."

It further noted, "For the financial year 2021-22, 156 works were sanctioned. It can be easily discern from the chart that no work has begun at the ground level in respect of said 156 works. Similarly, in 2022-23, 152 total works were sanctioned. The progress in work is zero, which means that even the tender process has not begun.”

It was also pointed out to the bench that the Bihar Police Building Construction Corporation (BPBCC) is unable to effectively execute the work of constructing police stations or police outposts in the state due to a lack of its own infrastructure in terms of manpower and other issues. Based on his discussions with BPBCC officials, Dr. Singh informed the court that the position of Chief Engineer in the BPBCC has been vacant for a long time.

The bench said the construction of buildings for Police Stations/Police Outposts is of enormous importance and cannot be overlooked by the State respondents in the manner that it has been overlooked thus far.

“We, accordingly, direct the State of Bihar to ensure that an officer of the rank of Chief Engineer is deputed in BPBCC forthwith, and in no case, beyond one week from today,” the bench directed.

The court said considering the glaring lack of infrastructure available with the BPBCC, which has largely hampered construction of buildings of Police Stations/ Police Out-Posts in the State of Bihar, it directs the Secretary, Building Construction Department, Government of Bihar to proactively coordinate with the BPBCC to ensure that the work of construction of buildings of Police Stations/ Police Out-Posts is expedited. 

While constituting a committee to ensure speedy construction of adequate police stations in the State of Bihar, the bench said the Committee shall be obliged to consider the suggestions made by Dr. Singh as regards Standard for Modern Model Police Station Buildings.

The constitution of Committee shall be as under, as per the order:

(i) The Development Commissioner, Bihar;

(ii) The Additional Chief Secretary, HomeDepartment, Government of Bihar;

(iii) The Chairman-cum-Managing Director, BPBCC; and

(iv) The Secretary, Building Construction Department,Government of Bihar."

“As regards providing funds for maintaining cleanliness at the Police Stations, we direct the Director General of Police, Bihar to take up the matter with the Finance Department, Government of Bihar and after sanction of funds, prepare standard operating procedure for expenditure in order to fulfil the requirement under Rule 74 of the Bihar Police Manual,” the court said further in the order

Case Title: Based on Hon’ble Court’s Order dt. 06.04.2022 passed in Cr. Misc. No.25431/2021 vs. State Of Bihar Civil Writ Jurisdiction Case No.7622 of 2022

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