Inaugural holder J.N. Chaturvedi | Formation 1978 | |
Appointer Ministry of Home Affairs (India) Term length 60 years age or 60 months (whichever earlier)
Renewable at Ministry's pleasure Constituting instrument The Delhi Police Act, 1978 Deputy The Additional Commissioner(s) of Police (one or more) | ||
The Commissioner of Police, Delhi or Delhi Police Commissioner is the head of the Delhi Police, the main law and order agency of the eleven revenue districts of National Capital of India, Delhi.
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In the year 1966, the Government of India constituted the Delhi Police Commission headed by Justice G.D. Khosla to go into the Problems faced by Delhi Police and it was on the basis of the Khosla Commission Report that the Delhi Police was reorganised. Four Police districts, namely, North, Central, South and New Delhi were constituted. The Delhi Police Commission also recommended the introduction of Police Commissioner System which was eventually adopted from July 1,1978.
Following the recommendations of "Khosla Commission", Commissioner of Police system in Delhi, the capital of India was started in 1978, with J.N. Chaturvedi being appointed as the first Police Commissioner of Delhi. It replaced the earlier Inspector General of Police system, where the Inspector General of police would report to the Divisional Commissioner of Delhi, thus having a dual authority in effect. The Commissioner system brought an end to this dual authority as since then the appointed Commissioner of Police is of Director General of Police (DGP) reports to the Lieutenant-Governor of Delhi but through its counterpart Chief Secretary of Delhi.
The current Commissioner is Alok Kumar Verma, who was appointed by Home Ministry on 29 February 2016 and took office on February 2016. The longest serving Commissioner of Delhi Police is Y.S. Dadwal who served for 41 months (2007-2010).
Controversies
The issue of appointment of police commissioners of New Delhi, has not been without controversies. The most recent controversy was when a senior police officer Kiran Bedi was superseded to appoint her junior Dadwal as the Police Commissioner in July 2007. Bedi went on record saying that at a time, when the President of India as well as the chairperson of the ruling alliance UPA were women (Pratibha Patil and Sonia Gandhi respectively), it would have done a lot of good for country's image as well as for the upliftment of women if she had been appointed. She resigned soon after in protest, although her official line was that she wanted to devote more time to social work.
Related links
1. Department of Police, Delhi