-Outlook.com The obligation of the police is not only to control crime and maintain peace but to do in an unbiased and even-handed manner, writes Vipul Mudgal A disturbing template of policing is emerging in India: one of selective and disproportionate action against some, deliberate inaction against others and collusion with a section of troublemakers. All these at the cost of neutrality and fair play. If there is something ominous about the...

-The Indian Express In another significant departure from the draft Bill, the Bill allows personal data to be stored and processed abroad, without requiring a mirror of the data in India. The Personal Data Protection Bill listed to be introduced in Lok Sabha on Wednesday has allowed transfer of certain types of personal data overseas, but has given broad powers to government agencies to collect personal and sensitive data of citizens. An earlier...

-The Indian Express What is needed is ‘ease of policing’, better training and infrastructure Common Cause’s recent survey on the Status of Policing in India is said to have affirmed that the black sheep in the police force find nothing wrong with beating up criminals to extract a confession. It is still, however, too judgemental to suggest that torture is endemic to Indian policing, as Maja Daruwala does (‘Exorcising third-degree’, IE,...

-The Indian Express Torture is an endemic characteristic of Indian policing. A commitment to eradicating it requires the police force as a whole to have zero tolerance for the practice besides a specific anti-torture law The home minister’s recent pronouncement that the days of third-degree torture are gone is extraordinarily welcome. His announcement is as much a signal to the security forces to lay off this practice as it is an acknowledgment...

-Hindustan Times A study shows glaring gaps in Indian policing — from unfilled quotas of SC/STs to a dip in women officers. The rule of law has two extremes: a failed State and a police State. A failed State loses control over law and order as its monopoly slips over the use of physical force. The latter commands complete control, but ends up abusing State machinery for repression. Both extremes suffer...