AAP MLA moves Delhi HC against formation of police complaints authority

AAP MLA Sanjeev Jha moved the Delhi High Court today challenging the formation of police complaints authority (PCA) to look into allegations of serious misconduct against erring policemen in the national capital.

The AAP MLA in his plea has contended that the body constituted by the Lieutenant Governor (LG) has been formed without consulting representatives of the AAP government.

The matter is likely to come up for hearing on August 3.

As per the notification, the authority shall enquire into allegations of serious misconduct against police personnel, either on its own or on a complaint received from a victim, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), LG, chief secretary or principal secretary (Home) of the Delhi government.

The PCA of National Capital Territory of Delhi would be headed by a chairperson and would have three members, one of whom would be a woman.

While the chairperson would be a retired high court judge, the other members either be "a person of repute and stature from civil society; a retired civil servant of minimum of scale of secretary to government of Delhi with experience in public administration; and a retired police officer of minimum of scale of joint commissioner/inspector general of police or corresponding rank".

"The authority has been set up for redressing the grievances of residents against police officials pertaining to death in police custody, grievous hurt as defined in the Indian Penal Code Section 320, rape or attempt to rape, arrest or detention without due process of law, extortion, land/house grabbing or any incident involving serious abuse of authority," an official spokesperson had said.