police administration

1. Redressal of Public
Grievances
By
Nancy
M.A. Criminology

2. INTRODUCTION
Public grievances cells are a redressal system set up to
take action against acts of omission or commission on
the part of police officials.
In a democracy, the citizens make the government and
hold it accountable.
The grievances of citizens against government
machinery need to be heard and redressed otherwise,
citizens will tend to withdraw their loyalty towards it.

3. NEED OF REDRESSAL
The state of public grievances serves as a barometer to
gauge the efficiency and effectiveness of the
administrative processes and polices.
Persistence of public grievances in any administrative
system speaks of a wary state of administration. The
absence of any record of public grievances can,
however, indicate a worse scenario.
For, grievances may remain unacknowledged despite
being of a serious nature; these may finally assume
unmanageable proportions and expose the system to a
legitimacy crisis.

4. Both timely ventilation and redress of grievances are
therefore a serious concern of any citizen friendly
administration.
Delay or harassment and unhelpful attitude of
government departments and agencies create a bad
image of government.

5. The Administrative Reforms Commission was set up by the
Government of India in 1966.
On the “Problems of Redress of Citizens’ Grievances”, the
commission said the following:
“When the citizen can establish the genuineness of his
case, it is plainly the duty of the state to set right the
wrong done to him. An institution for redress of
grievances must be provided within the democratic
system of government. It has to be an institution in which
the average citizen will have faith and confidence and
through which he will be able to secure quick and
inexpensive justice”.

6. INSTRUMENTS OF REDRESSAL
OF GRIEVANCE
In India, it has been observed by many committees and
commissions that special machinery should be set up to
deal with public complaints against the administration.
Various institutions in India exist to redress public
grievances:
1) A citizen can move the court to seek remedy against
any wrong done to him by a public servant or a public
agency in the course of discharge of public duty: This is
called Judicial remedy.

7. 2) Parliamentary procedure provides for opportunities to
raise questions in Parliament by the elected
representatives concerning their constituencies. A citizen
may submit petitions to secure redress against an act of
injustice.
3) Under the provisions of the Public Servants (Enquiries)
Act, departmental as well as public agencies can be
instituted against a public servant for his misconduct.
4) The government has also created Department of
Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances. This is the
nodal agency of the government for Administrative
Reforms as well as redressal of public grievances.

8. NODAL AGENCIES
At the apex level, there are primarily two designated
nodal agencies in the Central Government for handling
these grievances:
(i) the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public
Grievances under Ministry of Personnel, Public
Grievances and Pensions
(ii) the Directorate of Public Grievances, Cabinet
Secretariat.

9. THE DEPARTMENT OF
ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS AND
PUBLIC GRIEVANCES (DARPG)
DARPG has undertaken initiatives in the fields of
administrative reforms and public grievances in the
Government, aimed at the delivery of citizen-centric
administration and quality public services in order to
improve governance.
The main responsibility of the DARPG is to lay down
broad policy guidelines for the institutionalization of
grievance redress system in the Ministries/ Departments/
Organization.

10.  Since most grievances arise at field level, their actual
redress is expected to come from the agencies
functioning at the local level.
 The grievances received by the Department are
forwarded to the concerned Ministries/ Departments/
State Governments/ Union Territories, dealing with the
substantive functions related to which a particular
grievance has been received.

11. THE DIRECTORATE OF PUBLIC
GRIEVANCES
The Directorate of Public Grievances was set up in the
Cabinet Secretariat in 1988 based on the review of the
public grievances redress machinery in Government of
India carried out in 1987.
At present, this Directorate is handling grievances
pertaining to 20 Central Government Organizations.
 Directorate of Public Grievances has been empowered
to call for the files and officers to see that grievance
handling has been done in a fair, objective and just
manner.

12. CENTRAL PUBLIC GRIEVANCE REDRESS
AND MONITORING SYSTEM (CPGRAMS)
Centralized Public Grievance Redress And Monitoring
System (CPGRAMS) is an online web-enabled system
developed by National Informatics Center (NIC), in
association with Directorate of Public Grievances (DPG)
and Department of Administrative Reforms and Public
Grievances (DARPG).
It aims to enable submission of grievances by the
aggrieved citizens from anywhere and anytime (24x7)
basis to Ministries/Departments/Organizations who
scrutinize and take action for speedy and favorable
redress of these grievances.

13. Issues which are not taken up for redress:
Subjudice cases or any matter concerning judgment given
by any court.
Personal and family disputes.
RTI matters.
Anything that impacts upon territorial integrity of the
country or friendly relations with other countries.
Suggestions.

14. PUBLIC GRIEVANCE COMISSION
OF DELHI
The Commission was set up vide a Resolution dated 25th
September 1997 as a functionally independent body.
The Public Grievances Commission administers a
comprehensive mechanism for the effective redressal of
grievances received from members of the public.
Incoming grievances / complaints are directed against the
different departments under the jurisdiction of the
Government of the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi,
its local bodies, undertakings / other organizations, owned or
substantially financed by the Government of Delhi. Delhi
Police has also been brought under the Commission.

15. ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE:

16. FUNCTION AND POWER:
The Commission examines complaints made by
members of public against acts of omission or
Commission including cases of inaction or harassment
or extortion or corruption or abuse of power and
authority
On the part of the officials of the departments of
Government of NCT of Delhi and local bodies,
autonomous organizations/undertakings and other
institutions owned or substantially financed by the
Government of NCT of Delhi including Delhi Police.
The advisory jurisdiction of the Commission however,
does not extend to the Delhi Development Authority.

17. Thank
you