Civil Liberties □ Emphasis should be given to the need for proper training to tlie doctors in the conduct of autopsies. □ Zonal meeting of experts may be considered after study of the matter at the local level. The Commission is considering the decisions taken by the Committee. VISITS TO POLICE LOCK-UPS 3.25 Section 12(c) of the Protection of the Human Rights Act, 1993, confers upon the Commission the power to visit any jail or institution of detention. In this regard, all States and Union Territories have been requested to cooperate with the Commission in surprise visits that it may make to such locations. Dining the period under review, officers of the Commission visited three lock-ups in Uttar Pradesh and made a number of recommendations based on their observations, to improve conditions in these lock-ups. SYSTEMIC REFORMS: POLICE Submission Before the Supreme Court on Police Reforms 3.26 Participating in a proceeding before the Supreme Court in the matter of Prakash Singh V Union of India, the Commission had made a number of recommendations, ivhich it considered to be of crucial importance for improving the quality of policing in the country. The details of these recommendations may be seen in an annexure to the Annual Report of the Commission for 1997-98. 3.27 Subsequently, the Ribeiro Committee, which had been set up by the Ministry of Home Affairs following the directives of the Supreme Court to review and suggest ways and means to implement the recommendations of the National Police Commission, the Law Commission, the NHRC and the Vohra Committee, endorsed almost all the recommendations of the Commission. The Commission is following the hearings of this case closely and is making submissions before the Apex Court, as and when necessary, with the help of a reputed counsel who is assisting the Commission in this task. The Commission would like to reiterate its firmly held view that reform of the police along the lines that have been suggested by it and by others whose views are before the Apex Court, is of utmost importance to proper policing in this country, and to the promotion and protection of human rights. 3.28 For its part, during the period under review, the Ministry of Home Affairs constimted a Committee on Police Reforms headed by former Union Home Secretary Shri K. Padmanabhaiah. Its terms of reference, inter alia, required it to examine and specify the challenges that the Indian Police would face in the new millennium, evaluate 25