Cong MLAs stall Haryana move to reduce power of police complaint authority

Read Time:1 Minute, 57 Second

In Haryana Assembly, a few Congress MLAs Wednesday succeeded to stall a proposal of Haryana government aimed at reducing the powers of State Police Complaint Authority—which probes into allegations of serious misconduct against the police personnel.
The Haryana government had tabled The Haryana Police (Amendment) Bill, 2022, which had the provision to take away the powers of “suo motu” from the authority. After strong objections by the Congress legislators, the government agreed to accept their demand to refer the matter to the Select Committee of the House. As soon as the Bill was tabled in the Assembly, Congress MLA Varun Chaudhary took the lead to strongly object to the Bill terming it an attempt to reduce the powers of the State Police Complaint Authority. Varun Chaudhary said: “The authority can take cognizance of any matter by taking a suo motu but now that power is being taken away. Why is this being done?”
Chaudhary further said: “How many complaints are filed against the policemen? The people remain under pressure. Who will lodge a complaint against a policeman? Why is it necessary to reduce the jurisdiction of authority in a way that it won’t be able to inquire by taking a suo-moto? It’s jurisdiction should be expanded in place of reducing it.” The Congress legislator also reminded how the Authority was set up after great difficulty.
In an attempt to justify the government’s move, state home minister Anil Vij said that someone should be a complainant in the matter. Anil Vij said: “I myself refer several cases to the Authority after hearing complaints of the people.” But Varun Chaudhary insisted that even the High Court and Supreme has powers to take suo-moto. “What is the harm if the Authority has powers to take suo-moto?” said Chaudhary demanding that the Bill should be deferred for the time-being.
On his part, the Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said: “There are limitations for everyone. If we offer unlimited powers to anyone, it would have a lot of repercussions. For example, a lot of videos are shared on social media. If anyone takes a suo moto on it and keeps it pending for a long time? The state government has formed the Authority while the judiciary is a different thing.”
Lottery Box-India’s most professional lottery interactive community.