Police Reforms and Human Rights

Ishika Sharma
Symbiosis Law School, Pune,
Maharashtra, India

Volume I, Issue V, 2018

Service is a difficult proposition to measure. This is particularly so when the service is delivered on request of the client. This service provided by the police is also one of these services. Maintaining the satisfaction in the eyes of public is difficult task for them. And they worsen it by not adhering to human rights of the individual. Human rights and the police co-exist for sacred objective of enabling the individual to lead a happy and qualitative living.  In fact, police perform unending list of functions which revolves around protection of rights of the people. But the manner in which these functions are performed is the real matter of concern. The police in India, since its birth, have been known as unfriendly with human rights and this has not changed even today. The modern era consists of liberal democracy where rights of individuals have prominent stake.  The police, therefore, are required to act in accordance with rule of law laid down in the constitution. Police forces have the authority to exercise force to enforce laws and maintain law and order in a state. However, this power may be misused in several ways. For example, in India, various kinds of complaints are made against the police including complaints of unwarranted arrests, unlawful searches, torture and custodial rapes .This paper is an attempt to explore the relationship between human rights and police and to put a light on the necessity of application of ethics policing to ensure meaningful enjoyment of human rights of India.

 

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