Police officers on duty without identification badges reflect a deeper accountability crisis. Analyse this with reference to police reforms.

The name badge is the most basic tool of police accountability. Section 36(a) of the BNSS, 2023 requires an arresting officer to carry an "accurate, visible and clear" identification of name [1], which writes the D.K. Basu (1997) guidelines into law [2]. When officers on protest duty wear no badges, the problem is bigger than uniform discipline. It shows a police system that answers to rulers rather than to citizens.

Why the missing badge matters

• No name, no remedy: a citizen cannot name an unidentified officer in an FIR, inquiry or disciplinary case.
• Anonymity encourages excess: when no officer can be identified, using force costs nothing personally, especially during mass detentions.
• Global norm breached: UN Human Rights Committee General Comment 37 requires officers policing assemblies to display easily recognisable identification at all times [3].

The deeper crisis it reveals

• Executive control: the colonial Police Act, 1861 model makes police answer to the government of the day. In Delhi, police report to the Union MHA, so the authority that orders a crackdown also oversees any inquiry into it.
• Weak external oversight: independent complaint bodies are missing or ineffective in many states.
• Culture of impunity: internal inquiries rarely end with named officers punished, so excesses happen again.
• Gendered harm: GC 37 requires prompt, impartial investigation of police violence, including sexual and gender-based violence [3]. This standard is seldom met.

Police reforms: prescribed vs. delivered

• Prakash Singh (2006): the Supreme Court issued seven directives, including State Security Commissions to limit political interference, fixed DGP tenure, separation of investigation from law and order, and Police Complaints Authorities (PCAs) at state and district levels [4].
• 2nd ARC, 5th Report (Public Order): it recommended empowering PCAs to fix responsibility on police for glaring errors. The government accepted this "in principle" but left implementation to the states, since police is a State List subject [5].
• The result: reforms exist on paper, but compliance by states remains partial and uneven.

Way forward

• Mandatory, checked badges and body cameras on protest duty, with supervisors held liable for unbadged units [3].
• PCAs set up by statute whose findings bind the government.
• Written, court-reviewable reasons for every restriction or detention [3].

The missing badge sums up the whole crisis in one visible lapse: executive capture, weak oversight and impunity. Enforcing BNSS Section 36 and fully implementing the Prakash Singh directives would turn the police from a "force" into a "service". That would uphold Article 21 and SDG 16's goal of accountable institutions.