Putting an end to the practice of addressing constables as police karamcharis (employees), state Director General of Police S S Khandwawala has ordered that all Gujarat policemen should henceforth be addressed only as ‘officers’ in all official communications.

“Constables are the junior most officers in the police hierarchy. They should, therefore, be given the due respect and treated as officers,” Khandwawala told Newsline.

The administrative circular, senior police officers said, has been issued under the provisions of Section 2 of the Bombay Police Act (BPA) that declares constables as police officers and Section 157 of CrPC that authorises all police officers, including constables, as competent to investigate criminal offences. Copies of the circular have been sent to the police commissionerates in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat and Rajkot as well as the police superintendents (SPs) of all the districts for immediate implementation.

“Constables are notified as police officers all over the country, but are treated as mere Class IV employees, even though they fall in the Class III category. As per my knowledge, nowhere in the country are constables officially addressed as officers,” ADGP (Law and Order), Sudhir Sinha said.

Gujarat adopted the BPA after being carved out of the erstwhile Maharashtra estate in 1960. Though the Act considers constables as officers, all official correspondences address constables as police karamcharis and policemen above the rank of Assistant Sub-Inspectors as officers. The minimum educational qualification for constables in the state was Class VII pass until 1988, when the bar was raised to SSC. At present, the force has got several graduates and postgraduates in its more than 40,000 constabulary.

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