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Recently, the Uttar Pradesh government has decided to introduce the police commissionerate system in Agra, Ghaziabad and Prayagraj after it was implemented in Noida, Varanasi, Lucknow and Kanpur.
The three districts would be declared as metropolitan cities as per the rules of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) before implementing the police commissionerate system.
Commissionerate System
Empowerment of police under commissionerate system:
The commissioner of police under the commissionerate system exercises the powers and duties of a District Magistrate. These powers are also available to any officer under the commissioner who is not below the rank of an Assistant Commissioner of Police.
This essentially means that such police officers now have powers of preventive arrest, imposing Section 144 of the CrPC Act.
The police are also empowered to conduct externment proceedings and issue written orders to remove a person from their jurisdiction of the commissionerate for a maximum of two years.
Difference between the Dual System of Control and the Commissionerate System
Commissionerate system | Dual system |
The commissioner of police under the commissionerate system exercises the powers and duties of a District Magistrate along with policing. | Separation of powers of the DM and the police. |
Concentration of the power is under the single authority. | DM is entrusted with issuing arrest warrants, licenses while the SP has powers and responsibilities to investigate crime and make arrests. |
Higher concentration of power. | The system is designed to ensure a lower concentration of power and making the police more accountable to the DM at the district level. |
