13-fold increase in complaints against cops in 5 years

The number of complaints against police officials in Haryana has recorded a sharp increase in the past five years. A number of cases are pending due to the lack of district-level authorities to hear residents’ grievances against police officials.

Information received from the state authorities in response to an application submitted under the Right to Information (RTI) Act revealed that the number of complaints against police officials has increased by more than 13 times since 2020.

The RTI reply revealed that the State Police Complaint Authority, Haryana, received 66 complaints in 2020. The number of complaints jumped to 223 in 2021, 443 in 2022, 505 in 2023 and 879 in 2024. As per data furnished by the government, the maximum number of complaints have been received against Inspectors (288), followed by ASIs (274), SIs (253) and Head Constables (137). A number of complaints are still pending before the complaint authority.

“Action was recommended in six of 879 complaints lodged in 2024, while 71 complaints are pending. Police officials against whom the complaints were lodged include five SPs, three DSPs, nine SHOs, 11 Inspectors, 19 SIs, 17 ASIs, and seven Head Constables," said Subhash, state convener of the Haryana Soochna Adhikar Manch, who filed the RTI application.

He said the high pendency could be attributed to the non-constitution of district-level panels to hear residents’ complaints against police officials. As per the Haryana Police Act 2007, amended in 2014, complaints against DSP-rank officers, and higher, had to be heard by the State Police Complaints Authority, while complaints against officials ranking from constables to inspectors were heard by the district-level authorities.

However, as of now, there was no district-level police complaints authority, and as an interim measure, the powers had been transferred to the State Police Complaints Authority, he said.

No chairperson for 5 years

As per the RTI reply, the Haryana Government established the State Police Complaint Authority on August 16, 2010, which remained functional till August 15, 2013, when the tenure of its head ended. The new chairperson and two members were appointed on February 28, 2019.

Haryana Tribune