The revenue police, constituted during British rule in the Garhwal and Kumoan hills, will pass into history books by July…
Representational Image (PHOTO: Getty Images)
The revenue police, constituted during British rule in the Garhwal and Kumoan hills, will pass into history books by July this year. The Uttarakhand High Court, in a landmark judgment in Nainital on Saturday, has asked the state government to replace the revenue police with normal police.
The concept of revenue officers acting as policeman came into existence in the Indian Himalayan region due to the low crime rate. The High Court in its order took note of a 2011 case in which a married woman was murdered for dowry at Gawana village in Tehri. Citing practical problems faced by the revenue staff in investigating crime cases the court asserted that as ‘Patwari’ and other revenue staff are not trained to investigate crime cases and do not have modern gadgets, they should be replaced.
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Raghuveer Rawat, a local resident of Chakrata in Dehradun district, said, “My village area is under revenue police. The Patwari wears normal civil clothes and his staff ‘Khaki’ dress like that used by Chaukidars. With time crime is increasing in the hills and the old system should be replaced.”
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A Division Bench of Justice Rajiv Sharma and Justice Alok Singh asked the Uttarakhand government to increase the number of police stations and arrange other facilities within six months to replace revenue police with normal police. The high court decision has taken the Uttarakhand government by surprise as they will have to create infrastructure for policing in remote areas within six months.
Barring four districts, a major portion of Uttarakhand comes under the revenue police. Revenue officials including Kanoongo, Lekhpal and Patwari have been conferred the powers and functions of the police officer to investigate offences. The British government introduced the revenue police system one-and-a-half centuries back.
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