While narcotic sedation cripples the neural system, bureaucratic sedation conflagrates the social system

It has been very trivial these days to find senior officials and public servants engaging in brutal acts on innocent public and vandalizing their property.

Although the Supreme Court has iterated to un-resort the use of any force even in case of arrest of an accused (except if the accused is non-cooperative), very often senior officials lower their ranks to indulge in man-handling insanities.

Instances of human rights violations by brutal bureaucratic behaviour

The acts of violence are not finger-numbered to complete the list, but a few recent ones are highlighted here.

9 Jan 2019 Bengal cadre IAS officer and his wife slap and also give death intimidation to a boy for posting derogatory comments about his wife on Facebook.

Violations:-

- - IPC Sec – 330:- Voluntarily causing hurt to extort confession.
  - IPC Sec – 340:- Wrongful confinement.

26 Apr 2021 Tripura DM vandalizes marriage held beyond permitted hours, the officer slaps at the guests and also deters women members in the marriage from being penalized.

Violations:-

- - IPC Sec – 330:- Voluntarily causing hurt to extort confession.
  - CrPC Sec – 46(4):- A woman cannot be arrested:-
  - after sunset & before sunrise,
  - without the presence of a women police officer, and
  - without permission from a judicial magistrate.
  - CrPC Sec – 47(2):- A woman (and her residence) can be searched by a female police officer.

While the officer kept threatening some of them to be arrested and also barraged into women’s dressing room indecently.

05 May 2021 Kapurthala (Punjab) SHO was found wrecking up a vegetable stall for violating lockdown restrictions.

Violations:-

Although there is no law which criminalizes this act, no law defends the authorities for causing unreasonable sabotage of private property.

21 May 2021 Chhattisgarh District Collector stops a biker on his way to get the vaccination and slaps him alleging violation of COVID restrictions.

Brutal Bureaucracy blatantly oppressing Human rights — Image Source – Hindustan Times

Violations:-

- - IPC Sec – 340:- Wrongful confinement.
  - As the person had a registered prescription for vaccination, it also accounts for a violation of the fundamental right to health under Article – 21 of the Indian Constitution.

28 Sep 2022 Principal Secretary of Bihar Women and Children Development Corporation chides a girl student for requesting sanitary pads.

This is a clear indication of inhumane behavior towards the underprivileged sections of society, the Union government implemented the Menstrual Hygiene Scheme in 2011 to promote the use of sanitary napkins.

While the scheme could have been inappropriately covered in certain areas, the officer case evaded the responsibility to address the grievance.

Corruption in Indian bureaucracy

A survey conducted by Transparency International India (TII) in 2017, reports that Indian bureaucracy is the worst corrupted among the Asian nations.

Supreme Court and other recommendations regarding bureaucratic and police reforms

The earlier Chief Justice of India N V Ramana expressed dissatisfaction over the unprofessional bureaucratic behavior and brutal policing acts and suggested a panel to probe into such incidents.
Just a few years ago, in the Prakash Singh case in 2006 the apex court had insisted to establish State Police Complaints Authority to allow the public to launch grievances against the police.
But as per the Common Wealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) report 2020, not even a single Indian state had complied with this judgement.
Among the nine principles for good policing recommended by IPS Julio Ribeiro (rtd) the outstanding one is:

The efficiency of a competent officer is relevant to the absence of crime, but not in the visible evidence of inflicting violence on trivial instances.

Supreme Court in the Prem Shankar Shukla vs Delhi (1980) had directed the use of handcuff to be limited and used only when the accused is trying to escape or non-cooperates with the police.

International comparison

U.K:-

In the report “Reducing Bureaucracy in Policing Advocate – Jan Berry” (published in 2010) the author recommends the separation of bureaucracy from policing to prevent the decline of trust among the public.

U.S.A:-
- The Department of Justice lays down the procedure to report police misconduct.
- US Government has recommended judicial and legislative supervision to empower the public to report bureaucratic oppressions.
- US Congress has a check over bureaucratic corruption, by directing the officials to submit the statement of annual bureaucratic expenditure to the Congressional Budget Office and Government Accountability Office even before the CAG reviews it.

While in India “CAG” (under Article 146 of the Constitution of India) appointed by the President (after consulting the Council of Ministers headed by the Prime minister) has no prescribed qualifications.

Remedies available under the present law

Under CrPC Sec – 50, every arrested person has the right to be informed over the grounds of arrest and provisions to bail, the same is enshrined under Article 22(1) of the Indian Constitution.
Under Article 20(3) of the Indian Constitution, a person cannot be forced to be a witness against himself.

But on a whole for a peaceful administration, there is a requirement to respect Human Rights and moral conduct, which is missing.

India is not a signatory to UN Convention on torture…

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