The commissioner system in New Delhi

New Delhi

New Delhi is the capital city of India. It serves as the centre of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi. It is one of the nine districts of Delhi Union Territory. The total area of the city is...

, the capital of India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 was started in 1978, with J.N.Chaturvedi being appointed as the first Police Commissioner. It replaced the earlier Inspector General of Police system, where the Inspector General of police would report to the Chief Secretary, thus having a dual authority in effect. The Commissioner system brought an end to this dual authority as since then the appointed Commissioner of Director General of Police

Director General of Police

In India the director general of police or inspector general of police is a three-star rank and the highest ranking police officer in Indian States & Union Territories. All DGPs/IGPs are Indian Police Service officers. The DGP/IGP is usually the head of the state police force in every Indian state...

 (DGP) rank being equivalent to its counterpart Chief Secretary

Chief Secretary

The Chief Secretary is the title of a senior civil servant in members of the Commonwealth of Nations, and, historically, in the British Empire. Prior to the dissolution of the colonies, the Chief Secretary was the second most important official in a colony of the British Empire after the...

 reports directly to the Lieutenant-Governor of National Capital Territory of Delhi.

List of Police Commissioners of New Delhi

• J.N.Chaturvedi (July 1978 - Jan 1980)
• P.S. Bhinder (Jan 1980 - Dec 1981)
• Bajrang Lal (December 1981 - April 1983)
• S.C. Tandon (April 1983 - Nov 1983)
• S.S. Jog (Nov 1984 - April 1985)
• Ved Prakash Marwah (April 1985 - April 1988)
• Vijay Karan (April 1988 - December 1990)
• Arun Bhagat (December 1990 - Feb 1992)
• M.B.Kaushal (Feb 1992 - Jan 1995)
• Nikhil Kumar (Jan 1995 - Apr 1997)
• T.R. Kakkar (April 1997 - May 1998)
• V.N.Singh (May 1998 - June 1999)
• Ajai Raj Sharma (July 1999 - June 2002)
• R.S. Gupta (July 2002 - Jan 2004)
• K.K.Paul (Feb 2004 - July 2007)
• Y.S. Dadwal (July 2007 - Nov 2010)
• B.K. Gupta (Nov 2010 Onwards)

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

Kiran Bedi is an Indian social activist and a retired Indian Police Service officer. Bedi joined the police service in 1972 and became the first woman officer in the IPS. Bedi held the post of Director General at the Bureau of Police Research and Development before she voluntarily retired from...

 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

Pratibha Patil

Pratibha Devisingh Patil is the 12th President of the Republic of India and first woman to hold the office. She was sworn in as President of India on 25 July 2007, succeeding Dr. A.P.J...

 and Sonia Gandhi

Sonia Gandhi

Sonia Gandhi is an Italian-born Indian politician and the President of the Indian National Congress, one of the major political parties of India. She is the widow of former Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi...

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.