The Act of 1946, Read Section by Section

In one line

Four short sections constitute a police force, borrow the local police's powers for it, and leave the offences it may investigate to a notification.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: section 1 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act 1946 gives the short title and extends the Act to the whole of India; section 1A, inserted by section 26(a) of the Central Vigilance Commission Act 2003, provides that words and expressions used in this Act and not defined but defined in that Act shall have the meanings assigned to them there; section 2 empowers the Central Government, notwithstanding the Police Act 1861, to constitute a special police force called the Delhi Special Police Establishment for the investigation in any Union territory of offences notified under section 3, gives its members the powers of the local police there and gives a member of or above the rank of Sub-Inspector the powers of an officer in charge of a police station; and section 3 empowers the Central Government to specify by notification the offences or classes of offences to be investigated by the Establishment.

Section 1: title and extent

(1) Short title. The Delhi Special Police Establishment Act 1946.

(2) Extent. It extends to the whole of India, the words "except the State of Jammu and Kashmir" having been omitted by Act 62 of 1956.

Distinguish the extent of the Act from the jurisdiction of the force, because students collapse them constantly. The Act runs everywhere in India. The force it constitutes may, under section 2, investigate in any Union territory. To act in a State it needs an order under section 5 and the consent of that State under section 6. Extent is where the statute is law; jurisdiction is where the police may act.

Section 1A: the definitions come from another Act

Inserted by section 26(a) of the Central Vigilance Commission Act 2003:

"Words and expressions used herein and not defined but defined in the Central Vigilance Commission Act 2003 shall have the meanings, respectively, assigned to them in that Act."

A small section with a large implication, and it is worth a sentence in any answer on the relationship between the two bodies. The Act of 1946 has no definition clause of its own. Since 2003 it reads its vocabulary out of the Central Vigilance Commission Act, which is why the word "Commission" in section 4(1), used without explanation, means the Central Vigilance Commission constituted under section 3(1) of that Act.

It also shows how thoroughly the 2003 Act rebuilt this one. Chapter 680 listed the grafts: section 1A, the substituted section 4, sections 4A, 4B, 4C and section 6A. The 1946 Act as it stands today is largely a creature of 2003, 2014 and 2021, and only sections 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 are substantially the original.