this article from New Indian express postulates the problem, an excerpt here
The Police Act Drafting Committee constituted by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) under Soli J Sorabjee had prepared a Model Police Act and submitted the same to the Government of India on October 30, 2006. The Act was based on the very fundamentals postulated by the Supreme Court in its judgment. It would have been ideal if the government had promptly passed a Central legislation on the basis of the Model Police Act.Article 252 of the Constitution gives Parliament the power to legislate for two or more states by consent and the adoption of such legislation by any other state. The Central legislation could have been mutatis mutandis adopted by the other states/Union Territories of the country. Such a step would have ensured broad uniformity in the police structure across the country.
The Government of India, however, dithered in the matter. The draft legislation was tossed like a shuttlecock between MHA and the Government of Delhi for years—and is yet to be passed even after eight years. The state governments saw that the Union Government itself was not serious about police reforms. They, therefore, merrily passed police Acts which were designed to give legal cover to the existing arrangements or issued executive orders which diluted and modified the court’s directions. The net result is that there is huge divergence in the pattern of police Acts passed by the state governments.
The Police Act Drafting Committee constituted by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) under Soli J Sorabjee had prepared a Model Police Act and submitted the same to the Government of India on October 30, 2006. The Act was based on the very fundamentals postulated by the Supreme Court in its judgment. It would have been ideal if the government had promptly passed a Central legislation on the basis of the Model Police Act.Article 252 of the Constitution gives Parliament the power to legislate for two or more states by consent and the adoption of such legislation by any other state. The Central legislation could have been mutatis mutandis adopted by the other states/Union Territories of the country. Such a step would have ensured broad uniformity in the police structure across the country.
The Government of India, however, dithered in the matter. The draft legislation was tossed like a shuttlecock between MHA and the Government of Delhi for years—and is yet to be passed even after eight years. The state governments saw that the Union Government itself was not serious about police reforms. They, therefore, merrily passed police Acts which were designed to give legal cover to the existing arrangements or issued executive orders which diluted and modified the court’s directions. The net result is that there is huge divergence in the pattern of police Acts passed by the state governments.
