The body meant to investigate complaints against the police has been working without its own independent investigator. The Kerala High Court has given the State four weeks to fill the post of Chief Investigating Officer in the State Police Complaints Authority, a post that, despite the Court’s directions back in 2022, has remained vacant, and sought an affidavit of compliance.
Kochi: The Kerala High Court has granted the State four weeks’ time to fill the post of Chief Investigating Officer (CIO) in the State Police Complaints Authority (SPCA), an independent body constituted under the Kerala Police Act, 2011 to consider complaints against police officers [Jaffer Khan v. State of Kerala and Others].
A Division Bench of Chief Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Syam Kumar V.M. passed the direction.
The direction
The Court noted that the State’s Home Department had constituted a three-member search-cum-selection committee for the selection of the CIO, and that the committee had been requested to take further steps to finalise the qualifications, experience and other details for the appointment, keeping in view the nature and responsibility attached to the post. “The matter stands adjourned for 4 weeks. We hope that by the aforesaid time, the post of the CIO will be filled by the competent person. An affidavit of compliance will be filed by the State,” the Court directed.
The background
The development comes in a PIL raising concerns about the effective functioning of the SPCA and the non-appointment of an independent CIO, despite earlier directions of the High Court in Jaffer Khan v. State of Kerala to finalise the appointment within 60 days from April 2022. The petition, thus, sought to have the Court’s earlier direction implemented and the Authority equipped with the independent investigative capacity the statute envisages.
The State Police Complaints Authority is a statutory body under the Kerala Police Act, 2011, one of a set of Police Complaints Authorities that States were required to establish following the Supreme Court’s directions in Prakash Singh v. Union of India to institutionalise independent oversight of police misconduct. The office of an independent Chief Investigating Officer is central to that design: it allows the Authority to have complaints against police officers investigated by an investigator of its own, rather than depending on the police establishment whose members are the subject of the complaints.
Why it matters
The effectiveness of a police-complaints mechanism turns on its independence, and, in particular, on its ability to investigate complaints without relying on the very force it is meant to hold to account. An Authority that must borrow investigators from the police to look into allegations against the police is compromised at the outset; the independent Chief Investigating Officer is the institutional answer to that problem. The prolonged vacancy in that post, on the petitioner’s case, has undermined the Authority’s capacity to function as the independent oversight body the law intends.
The Court’s approach, granting time and seeking an affidavit of compliance rather than passing coercive orders, reflects the deference courts ordinarily show to the executive in matters of appointment, while keeping the State to its obligation through continued supervision. The reference to the 2022 direction, however, underlines the concern: a timeline the Court set years ago has not been met, and the fresh four-week window, coupled with the demand for a compliance affidavit, signals that the Court expects the appointment to be completed now, and will monitor whether it is.
The larger significance lies in the enforcement of the Prakash Singh framework for police accountability, which many States have implemented only partially. The functioning of Police Complaints Authorities, adequately staffed and genuinely independent, is one of the measures by which the promise of that framework is tested; the Kerala High Court’s insistence on filling the independent-investigator post is a step towards giving the oversight mechanism the teeth it was designed to have.
Case Title: Jaffer Khan v. State of Kerala and Others [WP(PIL) 180/2026]
Bench: Chief Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Syam Kumar V.M., High Court of Kerala at Ernakulam
Date of Order: September 23, 2026
Status: State granted four weeks to appoint an independent Chief Investigating Officer in the State Police Complaints Authority; affidavit of compliance directed. Matter adjourned for four weeks.