Review police chiefs' appointments, suggests ex-CJI JS Verma panel

Set up to review criminal laws following the infamous Delhi gang-rape that took place on December 16, the Justice JS Verma Committee on Wednesday recommended to the Union home ministry to review appointments of all state police chiefs.

Stating that the Supreme Court judgment of 2006 in Prakash Singh's case, that gave certain directions for autonomy and improving the quality of the police force was yet to be implemented, Verma said, there should not be any further delay on the issue if there was genuine desire to honour the purpose of constituting the committee.

The former chief justice of India, while submitting his report here, complained that the response from directors general of police on the review of law was poor. "There was hardly any response from anyone of them and there was a news reports in one of the national dailies which said the DGPs ignore the committee. I don't know what it meant," said Verma.

On the attitude of the DGPs, the committee recommended for the review of appointment of these high officials. "The review of appointment of all those DGPs is the other recommendation we have made," said Verma while reading out from his report.