The Commissioner of Police, Delhi or Delhi Police Commissioner is the head of the Delhi Police, the Law enforcement agency of the 15 police districts (as of January 2019) of National Capital of India, Delhi.
Origins
In the year 1966, the Government of India 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 Delhi, the capital of India 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 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 (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 Rakesh Asthana, IPS a 1984 batch officer of Gujrat cadre deputed to AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territory) cadre, who took office on 28 July 2021.
Former Police Commissioners
Former Police Commissioners
Delhi Police Headquarters
| # | Name | Took Office | Left Office |
| 1 | J.N. Chaturvedi | Jul 1978 | Jan 1980 |
| 2 | P.S. Bhinder | Jan 1980 | Dec 1981 |
| 3 | Bajrang Lal | Dec 1981 | Apr 1983 |
| 4 | S.C. Tandon | Apr 1983 | Nov 1984 |
| 5 | S.S. Jog | Nov 1984 | Apr 1985 |
| 6 | Ved Marwah | Apr 1985 | Apr 1988 |
| 7 | Raja Vijay Karan | Apr 1988 | Dec 1990 |
| 8 | Arun Bhagat | Dec 1990 | Feb 1992 |
| 9 | M.B. Kaushal | Feb 1992 | Jan 1995 |
| 10 | Nikhil Kumar | Jan 1995 | Apr 1997 |
| 11 | T.R. Kakkar | Apr 1997 | May 1998 |
| 12 | V.N. Singh | May 1998 | Jun 1999 |
| 13 | Ajay Raj Sharma | Jul 1999 | Jun 2002 |
| 14 | R.S. Gupta | Jul 2002 | Feb 2004 |
| 15 | Krishan Kant Paul | Feb 2004 | Jul 2007 |
| 16 | Y.S. Dadwal | Jul 2007 | Nov 2010 |
| 17 | B.K. Gupta | Nov 2010 | Jun 2012 |
| 18 | Neeraj Kumar[4][5] | Jun 2012 | Jul 2013 |
| 19 | Bhim Sain Bassi[6] | Jul 2013 | Feb 2016 |
| 20 | Alok Kumar Verma[7] | Feb 2016 | Jan 2017 |
| 21 | Amulya Patnaik | Feb 2017 | Feb 2020 |
| 22 | S.N.Srivastava | March 2020 | June 2021 |
| 23 | Balaji Srivastava (Interim) | July 2021 | July 2021 |
| 24 | Rakesh Asthana | July 2021 | Incumbent |
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 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 and Sonia 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.[citation needed]
- Various opposition parties questioned the appointment of Rakesh Asthana, 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.