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Police Commissioner clears cops' appeals

By Devesh K. Pandey

NEW DELHI JULY 13. For the first time in the past few years, almost all the appeals put up by the Delhi police's lower subordinates on disciplinary actions taken against them by their seniors, have been cleared by the Police Commissioner, Radhye Shyam Gupta. This, notwithstanding the fact that several of them have been adjudged guilty.

The problem of piling appeal files came to the notice of Mr. Gupta when one of the appellants appeared before him saying his case was pending for the past three years and nothing was being done about it. "I took up the matter and decided to go through all the pending appeals," said Mr. Gupta.

Enquiries revealed that 126 such appeals were pending as on July 1 last year, of which 23 were lying on the shelf for around six months, 17 for a year, 46 beyond that and 40 appeals for over two years. Over 125 subordinates were in dilemma regarding the outcome of their appeals.

``Since the job of a Police Commissioner is multifarious in nature, at times it happens that some issues, including that of appeals, take a back seat. However, steps should be taken for the welfare of police personnel, which also include speedy clearance of appeals,'' said Mr. Gupta, admitting that going through the relevant documents was a strenuous and time-taking task.

The process also involves consultation with legal advisor to take into account the legal aspect of the case, since any appellant can challenge the decision before a court in future. However, while deciding these appeals, the Police Commissioner was at liberty to either exonerate, lower or increase the punishment of an appellant, based on his reason and facts.

Mr. Gupta recalled the case of an inspector, who had been punished by his senior for beating his subordinates in public, while in an inebriated state. The inspector filed an appeal alleging that he had been punished wrongly. However, after having gone through the records, which established that the inspector had in fact committed such an offence, the Police Commissioner released orders for his dismissal.

It is learnt that while the issue of clearance of appeals would soon be taken up in the law and order meeting, the Joint Commissioners of Police would be directed to clear the pending files at the earliest. At present, of the 32 appeals received since July 1 last year, 27 have been cleared by Mr. Gupta.

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