The Commissioner of Police, Delhi or Delhi Police Commissioner is the head of the

Delhi Police The Delhi Police (DP) is the law enforcement agency for the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). Delhi Police comes under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Government of India. In 2015, sanctioned strength of Delhi ...

, the

Law enforcement Law enforcement is the activity of some members of government who act in an organized manner to enforce the law by discovering, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing people who violate the rules and norms governing that society. The term en ...

agency of the 15 police districts (as of January 2019) of National Capital of India,

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

Origins

In the year 1966, the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

constituted the Delhi Police Commission headed by Justice G.D. Khosla to go into the problems faced by Delhi Police and it was on the basis of the Khosla Commission Report that the Delhi Police was reorganised. Four Police districts, namely, North, Central, South and New Delhi were constituted. The Delhi Police Commission also recommended the introduction of Police Commissioner system which was eventually adopted from 1 July 1978. Following the recommendations of "Khosla Commission", Commissioner of Police system in

, the capital of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

was started in 1978, with J.N. Chaturvedi being appointed as the first Police Commissioner of Delhi. It replaced the earlier

Inspector General of Police An Inspector General of Police is a senior police officer in the police force or police service of several nations. The rank usually refers to the head of a large regional command within a police service, and in many countries refers to the most se ...

system, where the Inspector General of police would report to the Divisional Commissioner (India) of Delhi, thus having a dual authority in effect. The Commissioner system brought an end to this dual authority as since then the appointed Commissioner of Police is of

Director General of Police Director general of police (DGP) is a rank in the Indian Police Service, held by the highest ranking police officer in a State or a Union Territory of India, typically heading the state or the UT police force. The DGP is appointed by the cabin ...

(DGP) reports to the Chief Secretary. The longest serving Commissioner of Delhi Police is Krishan Kant Paul who served for 42 months (2004-2007).

Incumbent Police Commissioner

The present Commissioner of Delhi Police is Sanjay Arora,

IPS IPS, ips, or iPS may refer to: Science and technology Biology and medicine * ''Ips'' (genus), a genus of bark beetle * Induced pluripotent stem cell or iPS cells * Intermittent photic stimulation, a neuroimaging technique * Intraparietal sulcus, ...

a 1988 batch officer of Tamil Nadu cadre deputed to AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territory) cadre, who took office on 1 August 2022.

Former Police Commissioners

Controversies

* The issue of appointment of police commissioners of New Delhi, has not been without controversies. The most recent controversy was when a senior police officer

Kiran Bedi Kiran Bedi (born 9 June 1949) is an Indian social activist, former-tennis player who became the first woman in India to join the officer ranks of the Indian Police Service (IPS) in 1972 and was the 24th Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry from 2 ...

was superseded to appoint her junior Dadwal as the Police Commissioner in July 2007. Bedi went on record saying that at a time, when the President of India as well as the chairperson of the ruling alliance UPA were women (

Pratibha Patil Prathibha DeviSingh Patil (born 19 December 1934) is an Indian politician and lawyer who served as the 12th president of India spanning from 2007 to 2012. She is the first woman to become the president of India. A member of the Indian National ...

and

Sonia Gandhi Sonia Gandhi ('' née'' Maino; born 9 December 1946) is an Indian politician. She is the longest serving president of the Indian National Congress, a social democratic political party, which has governed India for most of its post-independ ...

respectively), it would have done a lot of good for country's image as well as for the upliftment of women if she had been appointed. She resigned soon after in protest, although her official line was that she wanted to devote more time to social work. * Various opposition parties questioned the appointment of

Rakesh Asthana Rakesh Asthana (born 9 July 1961) is a retired Indian Police Service (IPS). He is of the 1984 batch of Gujarat cadre who served as the Special Director at the Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI). In July 2021, he was appointed as Police Com ...

, a 1984-Gujarat cadre IPS officer, as the Commissioner, who was appointed to the post on 27 July 2021, just before 4 days of his superannuation.

References

{{reflist New Delhi Indian police chiefs Delhi Police Commissioners of Delhi Police

Origins

Incumbent Police Commissioner

Former Police Commissioners

Controversies

See also

References