Supreme Court of India
Vakil Prasad Singh vs State Of Bihar on 23 January, 2009
12. Time and again this Court has emphasized the need for speedy investigations and trial as both are mandated by the letter and spirit of the provisions of the Cr.P.C. (In particular, Sections 197, 173, 309, 437 (6) and 468 etc.) and the constitutional protection enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution. Inspired by the broad sweep and content of Article 21 as interpreted by a seven-Judge Bench of this Court in Maneka Gandhi Vs. Union of India & Anr.4, in Hussainara Khatoon & Ors. Vs. Home Secretary, State of Bihar5, this Court had observed that Article 21 confers a fundamental right on every person not to be deprived of his life or liberty except according to procedure established by law; that such procedure is not some semblance of a procedure but the procedure should be 'reasonable, fair and just'; and therefrom flows, without doubt, the right to speedy trial. It was also observed that no procedure which does not ensure a reasonably quick trial can be regarded as 'reasonable, fair or just' and it would fall foul of Article 21. The Court clarified that speedy trial means reasonably expeditious trial which is an integral and essential part of the fundamental right to life and liberty enshrined in Article 21.
13. The exposition of Article 21 in Hussainara Khatoon's case (supra) was exhaustively considered afresh by the Constitution Bench in Abdul Rehman Antulay & Ors. Vs. R.S. Nayak & Anr.6. Referring to a number of decisions of this Court and the American precedents on the Sixth Amendment of their Constitution, making the right to a speedy and public trial a constitutional guarantee, the Court formulated as many as eleven propositions with a note of caution that these were not exhaustive and were meant only to serve as guidelines. For the sake of brevity, we do not propose to reproduce all the said propositions and it would suffice to note the gist thereof. These are: (i) fair, just and reasonable procedure implicit in Article 21 of the Constitution creates a right in the accused to be tried speedily; (ii) right to speedy trial flowing from Article 21 encompasses all the stages, namely the stage of investigation, inquiry, trial, appeal, revision and retrial; (iii) in every case where the speedy trial is alleged to have been infringed, the first question to be put and answered is -- who is responsible for the delay?; (iv) while determining whether undue delay has occurred (resulting in violation of right to speedy trial) one must have regard to all the attendant circumstances, including nature of offence, number of accused and witnesses, the work-load of the court concerned, prevailing local conditions and so on--what is called, the systemic delays; (v) each and every delay does not necessarily prejudice the accused. Some delays may indeed work to his advantage. However, inordinately long delay may be taken as presumptive proof of prejudice. In this context, the fact of incarceration of accused will also be a relevant fact. The prosecution should not be allowed to become a persecution. But when does the prosecution become persecution, again depends upon the facts of a given case; (vi) ultimately, the court has to balance and weigh several relevant factors--'balancing test' or 'balancing process'--and determine in each case whether the right to speedy trial has been denied; (vii) Ordinarily speaking, where the court comes to a conclusion that right to speedy trial of an accused has been infringed the charges or the conviction, as the case may be, shall be quashed. But this is not the only course open and having regard to the nature of offence and other circumstances when the court feels that quashing of proceedings cannot be in the interest of justice, it is open to the court to make appropriate orders, including fixing the period for completion of trial;
(viii) it is neither advisable nor feasible to prescribe any outer time-limit for conclusion of all criminal proceedings. In every case of complaint of denial of right to speedy trial, it is primarily for the prosecution to justify and explain the delay. At the same time, it is the duty of the court to weigh all the circumstances of a given case before pronouncing upon the complaint; (ix) an objection based on denial of right to speedy trial and for relief on that account, should first be addressed to the High Court. Even if the High Court entertains such a plea, ordinarily it should not stay the proceedings, except in a case of grave and exceptional nature. Such proceedings in the High Court must, however, be disposed of on a priority basis.
It is, therefore, well settled that the right to speedy trial in all criminal persecutions is an inalienable right under Article 21 of the Constitution. This right is applicable not only to the actual proceedings in court but also includes within its sweep the preceding police investigations as well. The right to speedy trial extends equally to all criminal prosecutions and is not confined to any particular category of cases. In every case, where the right to speedy trial is alleged to have been infringed, the court has to perform the balancing act upon taking into consideration all the attendant circumstances, enumerated above, and determine in each case whether the right to speedy trial has been denied in a given case. Where the court comes to the conclusion that the right to speedy trial of an accused has been infringed, the charges or the conviction, as the case may be, may be quashed unless the court feels that having regard to the nature of offence and other relevant circumstances, quashing of proceedings may not be in the interest of justice. In such a situation, it is open to the court to make an appropriate order as it may deem just and equitable including fixation of time frame for conclusion of trial.
Supreme Court of India
Hussainara Khatoon & Ors vs Home Secretary, State Of Bihar, ... on 9 March, 1979
Equivalent citations: 1979 AIR 1369, 1979 SCR (3) 532
there are several under-trial prisoners who are charged with offences which are bailable but who are still in jail presumably because no application for bail has been made on their behalf or being too poor they are unable to furnish bail. It is not uncommon to find that under-trial prisoners who are produced before the Magistrates are unaware of their right to obtain release on bail and on account of their poverty, they are unable to engage a lawyer who would apprise them of their right to apply for bail and help them to secure release on bail by making a proper application to the Magistrate in that behalf. Sometimes the Magistrates also refuse to release the undertrial prisoners produced before them on their personal bond but insist on monetary bail with sureties, which by reason of their poverty the under-trial prisoners are unable to furnish and which, therefore, effectively shuts out for them any possibility of release from pretrial detention. This unfortunate situation cries aloud for introduction of an adequate and comprehensive legal service programme, but so far, these cries do not seem to have evoked any response. We do not think it is possible to reach the benefits of the legal process to the poor, to protect them against injustice and to secure to them their constitutional and statutory rights unless there is a nation wide legal service programme to provide free legal services to them. It is now well settled, as a result of the decision of this Court in Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India(1) that when Article 21 provides that no person shall be deprived of his life or liberty except in accordance with the procedure established by law, it is not enough that there should be some semblance of procedure provided by law, but the procedure unnder which a person may be deprived of his life or liberty should be 'reasonable, fair and just'. Now, a procedure which does not make available legal services to an accused person who is too poor to afford a lawyer and who would, therefore, have to go through the trial without legal assistance, cannot possibly be regarded as 'reasonable fair and just. It is an essential indegredient of reasonable, fair and just procedure to a prisonel who is to seek his liberation through the court's process that he should have legal services available to him. This Court pointed out in M. H. Hoskot v. State of Maharashtra (2).:"Judicial justice, with procedural intricacies, legal submissions and critical examination of evidence, leans upon professional expertise; and a failure of equal justice under the law is on the cards where such supporteve skill is absent for one side. Our judicature, moulded by Anglo-American models and our judicial process, engineered by kindred legal technology, compel the collaboration of lawyer-power for steering the wheels of equal justice under the law". Free legal services to the poor and the needy is an essential element of any 'reasonable, fair and just' procedure. It is not necessary to quote authorative pronouncements by judges and jurists in support of the view that without the service of a lawyer an accused person would be denied 'reasonable, fair and just' procedure. Black, J., observed in Gidian v. Wainwright(3):
"Not only those precedents but also reason and reffection require us to recognise that in our adversary system of criminal justice, any person haled into court, who is too poor to hire a lawyer cannot be assured a fair trial unless counsel is provided for him. This seems to us to be an obvious truth. Governments, both State and Federal quite properly spend vast sums of money to establish machinery to try defendants accused of crime. Lawyers to prosecute are every where deemed essential to protect the public's interest in an orderly society. Similarly, there are few defendants charged with crime who fail to hire the best lawyers they can get to prepare and present their defences. That government hires lawyers to prosecute and defendants who have the money hire lawyers to defend are the strongest indications of the widespread belief that lawyers in criminal courts are necessties, not luxuries. The right of one charged with crime to counsel may not be deemed fundamental and essential to fair trials in some countries, but is in ours. From the very beginning, our state and national constitutions and laws have laid great emphasis on procedural and substantive safeguards designed to assure fair trials before impartial tribunals in which every defendant stands equal before the law. This noble idea cannot be realised if the poor man charged with crime has to face his accusers without a lawyer to assist him."
The philosophy of free legal service as an essential element of fair procedure is also to be found in the following passage from the judgment of Douglas, J. in Jon Richard Argersinger v. Raymond Hamlin(1) "The right to be heard would be, in many cases of little avail if it did not comprehend the right to be heard by counsel. Even the intelligent and educated layman has small and sometimes no skill in the science of law, if charged with crime, he is incapable, generally of determining for himself whether the indictment is good or bad. He is unfamiliar with the rules of evidence. Left without the aid of counsel he may be put on trial without a proper charge and convicted upon incompetent evidence, or evidence irrelevant to the issue or otherwise inadmissible. He lacks both the skill and knowledge adequately to prepare his defence, even though he has a perfect one. He requires the guiding hand of counsel at every step in the proceedings against him. Without it, though he be not guilty, he faces the danger of conviction because he does not know how to establish his innocence. If that be true of men of intelligence, how much more true is it of the ignorant and illiterate or those of feeble intellect.
The right of one charged with crime to counsel may not be deemed fundamental and essential to fair trials in some countries but it is in ours. From the very beginning our state and national constitutions and laws have laid great emphasis on procedural and substantive safeguards designed to assure fair trials before impartial tribunals in which every defendant stands equal before the law. This noble ideal cannot be realized if the poor man charged with crime has to face his accusers without a lawyer to assist him. Both Powell and Gideon involved felonies. But their rationale has relevance to any criminal trial, where an accused is deprived of his liberty.
x x x x x x The court should consider the probable sentence that will follow if a conviction is obtained. The more serious the likely consequences, the greater is the probability that a lawyer should be appointed..... The court should consider the individual factors peculiar to each case. These, of course would be the most difficult to anticipate. One relevant factor would be the competency of the individual defendent to present his own case. (emphasis added)"
We may also refer to Article 39A the fundamental constitutional directive which reads as follows:
"39A. Equal justice and free legal aid:-The State shall secure that the operation of the legal system promotes justice, on a basis of equal opportunity, and shall, in particular, provide free legal aid, by suitable legislation or schemes or in any other way, to ensure that opportunities for securing justice are not denied to any citizen by reason of economic or other disabilities. (emphasis added)"
This Article also emphasises that free legal service is an inalienable element of 'reasonable, fair and just' procedure for without it a person suffering from economic or other disabilities would be deprived of the opportunity for securing justice. The right to free legal services is, therefore, clearly an essential ingredient of 'reasonable, fair and just, procedure for a person accused of an offence and it must be held implicit in the guarantee of Article 21. This is a constitutional right of every accused person who is unable to engage a lawyer and secure legal services on account of reasons such as poverty, indigence or incommunicado situation and the State is under a mandate to provide a lawyer to an accused person if the circumstances of the case and the needs of justice so required, provided of course the accused person does not object to the provision of such lawyer. We would, therefore, direct that on the next remand dates, when the under-trial prisoners, charged with bailable offences, are produced before the Magistrates, the State Government should provide them a lawyer at its own cost for the purpose of making an application for bail, provided that no objection is raised to such lawyer on behalf of such under- trial prisoners and if any application for bail is made, the Magistrates should dispose of the same in accordance with the broad outlines set out by us in our judgment dated 12th February, 1979. The State Government will report to the High Court of Patna its compliance with this direction within a period of six weeks from today.
There are also various under-trial prisoners who have been in jail for periods exceeding one-half of the maximum punishment that could be awarded to them, if convicted, for the offences with which they are charged. To take an example, Budhu Mahli, who is at item No. 1 in the list of undertrial prisoners in Ranchi Central Jail has been in jail since 21st November, 1972 for offences under Section 395 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 25 of the Indian Arms Act. The maximum punishment for the offence under Section 395 of the Indian Penal Code is 10 years while that for the offence under Section 25 of the Indian Arms Act is much less. Yet Budhu Mahli has been in jail as an under-trial prisoner for over six years. So also Jairam Manjhi, Somra Manjhi, Jugal Munda and Gulam Munda at Item Nos. 2 to 7 in the list of under-trial prisoners confined in Ranchi Central Jail have been in jail as under-trial prisoners from 21st February, 1974 that is, for a period of over five years for the offence under Section 395 of the Indian Penal Code which is punishable with a maximum term of imprisonment of ten years. There are numerous other instances which can easily be gleaned from the lists of under-trial prisoners filed on behalf of the State of Bihar, where the under-trial prisoners have been in jail for more than half the maximum term of imprisonment for which they could be sentenced, if convicted. There is no reason why these undetrial prisoners should be allowed to continue to languish in jail, merely because the State is not in a position to try them within a reasonable period of time. It is possible that some of them, on trial may be acquitted of the offences charged against them and in that event, they would have spent several years in jail for offences which they are ultimately found not to have committed. What faith would these people have in our system of administration of justice ? Would they not carry a sense of frustration and bitterness against a society which keeps them in jail for so many years for offences which they did not commit ? It is, therefore, absolutely essential that persons accused of offences should be speedily tried, so that in cases where bail, in proper exercise of discretion, is refused, the accused persons have not to remain in jail longer than is absolutely necessary. Since there are several undertrial prisoners who have been in jail for periods longer than half the maximum term of imprisonment for which they could if convicted, be sentenced, we would direct that on the next remand dates when they are produced before the Magistrates or the Sessions Courts, the State Government should provide them a lawyer at its own cost for the purpose of making an application for bail and opposing remand provided that no objection is raised to such lawyer on their behalf and if any application for bail is made, the Magistrates or the Sessions Courts, as the case may be should dispose of the same in accordance with the broad guidelines indicated by us in our judgment dated 12th February, 1979. The State Government will comply with this direction as far as possible within a period of six weeks from today and submit report of compliance to the High Court of Patna.
We may also take this opportunity of impressing upon the Government of India as also the State Governments, the urgent necessity of introducing a dynamic and comprehensive legal service programme with a view to reaching justice to the common man. Today, unfortunately, in our country the poor are priced out of the judicial system with the result that they are losing faith in the capacity of our legal system to bring about changes in their life conditions and to deliver justice to them. The poor in their contract with the legal system have always been on the wrong side of the law. They have always come across "law for the poor" rather than "law of the poor". The law is regarded by them as something mysterious and forbidding-always taking something away from them and not as a positive and constructive social device for changing the socio economic order and improving their life conditions by conferring rights and benefits on them. The result is that the legal system has lost its credibility for the weaker sections of the community. It is, therefore, necessary that we should inject equal justice into legality and that can be done only by dynamic and activist scheme of legal services. We may remind the Government of the famous words of Mr. Justice Brennan "Nothing rankles more in the human heart than a brooding sense of injustice. Illness we can put up with. But injustice makes us want to pull things down. When only the rich can enjoy the law, as a doubtful luxury, and the poor, who need it most, cannot have it because its expense puts it beyond their reach, the threat to the continued existence of free democracy is not imaginary but very real, because democracy's very life depends upon making the machinery of justice so effective that every citizen shall believe in an benefit by its impartiality and fairness."
And also recall what was said by Leeman Abbot years ago in relation to affluent America.
"If ever a time shall come when in this city only the rich can enjoy law as a doubtful luxury, when the poor who need it most cannot have it, when only a golden key will unlock the door to the courtroom, the seeds of revolution will be sown, the fire-brand of revolution will be lighted and put into the hands of men and they will almost be justified in the revolution which will follow."
We would strongly recommend to the Government of India and the State Governments that it is high time that a comprehensive legal service programme is introduced in the country. That is not only a mandate of equal justice implicit in Article 14 and right to life and liberty conferred by Article 21, but also the compulsion of the constitutional directive embodied in Article 39A.
We find from the counter affidavit filed on behalf of the respondents that no reasons have been given by the State Goverment as to why there has been such enormous delay in bringing the under-trial prisoners to trial. Speedy trial is, as held by us in our earlier judgment dated 26th February, 1979, an essential ingredient of 'reasonable, fair and just' procedure guaranteed by Article 21 and it is the constitutional obligation of the State to device such a procedure as would ensure speedy trial to the accused. The State cannot be permitted to deny the constitutional right of speedy trial to the accused on he ground that the State has no adequate financial resources to incur the necessary expenditure needed for improving the administrative and judicial apparatus with a view to ensuring speedy trial. The State may have its financial constraints and its priorities in expenditure, but, as pointed out by the Court in Rhem v. Malclm(1): "The law does not permit any Government to deprive its citizens of constitutional rights on a plea of poverty". It is also interesting to notice what Justice, then Judge, Blackmum said in Jackson v. Bishop(2):
"Humane considerations and constitutional requirements are not, in this day, to be measured by dollar considerations...."
So also in Holt v. Sarver(1), affirmed in 442 F. Supp.
362, the Court, dealing with the obligation of the State to maintain a Penitentiary System which did not violate the Eighth Amendment aptly and eloquently said "Let there be no mistake in the matter; the obligation of the Respondents to eliminate existing unconstitutionalities does not depend upon what the Legislature may do, or upon what the Governor may do, or, indeed upon what Respondents may actually be able to accomplish. If Arkansas is going to operate a Penitentiary System, it is going to have to be a system that is countenanced by the Constitution of the United States."
The State cannot avoid its constitutional obligation to provide speedy trial to the accused by pleading financial or administrative inabiltiy. The State is under a constitutional mandate to ensure speedy trial and whatever is necessary for this purpose has to be done by the State. It is also the constitutional obligation of this Court as the guardian of the fundamental rights of the people, as a sentinel on the qui vive, to enforce the fundamental right of the accused to speedy trial by issuing the necessary directions to the State which may include taking of positive action, such as augmenting and strengthening the investigative machinery, setting up new courts, building new court houses, providing more staff and equipment to the courts, appointment of additional judges and other measures calculated to ensure speedy trial. We find that in fact the courts in the United States have adopted this dynamic and consructive role so far as the prison reform is concerned by utilising the activist magnitude of the Eighth Amendment. The courts have ordered substantial improvements to be made in a variety of archaic prisons and jails through decisions such as Hot v. Sarver (supra), Jones v. Wittenberg(2), Newman v. Alabama(3) and Gates v. Collier(4). The Court in the last mentioned case asserted that it "has the duty of fashioning a decree that will require defendants to eliminate the conditions and practices at Parchman here-in- above found to be violative of the United State's constitution" and in discharge of this duty gave various directions for improvement of the conditions of those confined in the State Penitentiary. The powers of this Court in protection of the Constitutional rights are of the widest amplitude and we do not see why this Court should not adopt a similar activist approach and issue to the State directions which may involve taking of positive action with a view to securing enforcement of the fundamental right to speedy trial. But in order to enable the Court to discharge this constitutional obligation, it is necessary that the Court should have the requisite information bearing on the problem. We, therefore, direct the State of Bihar to furnish to us within three weeks from today particulars as to the location of the courts of magistrates and courts of sessions in the State of Bihar together with the total number of cases pending in each of these courts as on 31st December, 1978 giving yearwise breakup of such pending cases and also explaining why it has not been possible to dispose of such of those cases as have been pending for more than six months. We would appreciate if the High Court of Patna also furnishes the above particulars to us within three weeks from today since the High Court on its administrative side must be having records from which these particulars can be easily gathered.
Supreme Court of India
Prem Shankar Shukla vs Delhi Administration on 29 April, 1980
Handcuffing is prima facie inhuman and, therefore, unreasonable, is over-harsh and at the first flush, arbitrary. Absent fair procedure and objective monitoring, to inflict 'irons' is to resort to zoological strategies repugnant to Art. 21. Thus, we must critically examine the justification offered by the State for this mode of restraint. Surely, the competing claims of securing the prisoner from fleeing and protecting his personality from barbarity have to be harmonised. To prevent the escape of an under-trial is in public interest, reasonable, just and cannot, by itself, be castigated But to bind a man hand-and- foot, fetter his limbs with hoops of steel, shuffle him along in the streets and stand him for hours in the courts is to torture him, defile his dignity, vulgarise society and foul the soul of our constitutional culture. Where then do we draw the humane line and how far do the rules err in print and praxis ?
Insurance against escape does not compulsorily require hand cuffing. There are other measures whereby an escort can keep safe custody of a detenu without the indignity and cruelty implicit in handcuffs or other iron contraptions. Indeed, binding together either the hands or the feet or both has not merely a preventive impact, but also a punitive hurtfulness. Manacles are mayhem on the human person and inflict humiliation on the bearer. The Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vol. II (1973 Edn.) at p. 53 states "handcuffs and fetters are instruments for securing the hands or feet of prisoners under arrest, or as a means of punishment." The three components of 'irons' forced on the human person must be distinctly understood. Firstly, to handcuff is to hoop harshly. Further, to handcuff is to punish humiliatingly and to vulgarise the viewers also. Iron straps are insult and pain writ large, animalising victim and keeper. Since there are other ways of ensuring security, it can be laid down as a rule that handcuffs or other fetters shall not be forced on the person of an under-trial prisoner ordinarily. The latest police instructions produced before us hearteningly reflect this view. We lay down as necessarily implicit in Arts. 14 and 19 that when there is no compulsive need to fetter a person's limbs, it is sadistic, capricious despotic and demoralizing to humble a man by manacling him. Such arbitrary conduct surely slaps Art. 14 on the face. The criminal freedom of movement which even a detainee is entitled to under Art. 19 (see Sunil Batra, supra) cannot be cut down cruelly by application of handcuffs or other hoops. It will be unreasonable so to do unless the State is able to make out that no other practical way of forbidding escape is available, the prisoner being so dangerous and desperate and the circumstance so hostile to safe-keeping.
Once we make it a constitutional mandate that no prisoner shall be handcuffed or fettered routinely or merely for the convenience of the custodian or escort-and we declare that to be the law-the distinction between classes of prisoners becomes constitutionally obsolete. Apart from the fact that economic and social importance cannot be the basis for classifying prisoners for purposes of handcuffs or otherwise, how can we assume that a rich criminal or under- trial is any different from a poor or pariah convict or under-trial in the matter of security risk ? An affluent in custody may be as dangerous or desperate as an indigent, if not more. He may be more prone to be rescued than an ordinary person. We hold that it is arbitrary and irrational to classify, prisoners for purposes of handcuffs, into 'B' class and ordinary class. No one shall be fettered in any form based on superior class differentia, as the law treats them equally. It is brutalising to handcuff a person in public and so is unreasonable to do so. Of course, the police escort will find it comfortable to fetter their charges and be at ease but that is not a relevant consideration.
The only circumstance which validates incapacitation by irons-an extreme measure-is that otherwise there is no other reasonable way of preventing his escape, in the given circumstances. Securing the prisoner being a necessity of judicial trial, the State must take steps in this behalf. But even here, the policeman's easy assumption or scary apprehension or subjective satisfaction of likely escape if fetters are not fitted on the prisoner is not enough. The heavy deprivation of personal liberty must be justifiable as reasonable restriction in the circumstances. Ignominy, inhumanity and affliction, implicit in chains and shackles are permissible, as not unreasonable, only if every other less cruel means is fraught with risks or beyond availability. So it is that to be consistent with Arts. 14 and 19 handcuffs must be the last refuge, not the routine regimen. If a few more guards will suffice, then no handcuffs. If a close watch by armed policemen will do, then no handcuffs. If alternative measures may be provided, then no iron bondage. This is the legal norm.
Functional compulsions of security must reach that dismal degree that no alternative will work except manacles. We must realise that our Fundamental Rights are heavily loaded in favour of- personal liberty even in prison, and so, the traditional approaches without reverence for the worth of the human person are obsolete, although they die hard. Discipline can be exaggerated by prison keepers; dangerousness can be physically worked up by escorts and sadistic disposition, where higher awareness of constitutional rights is absent, may overpower the values of dignity and humanity. We regret to observe that cruel and unusual treatment has an unhappy appeal to jail keepers and escorting officers, which must be countered by strict directions to keep to the parameters of the constitution. The conclusion flowing from these considerations is that there must first be well-grounded basis for drawing a strong inference that the prisoner is likely to jump jail or break out of custody or play the vanishing trick. The belief in this behalf must be based on antecedents which must be recorded and proneness to violence must be authentic. Vague surmises or general averments that the under-trial is a crook or desperado, rowdy or maniac, cannot suffice. In short, save in rare cases of concrete proof readily available of the dangerousness of the prisoner in transit- the onus of proof of which is on him who puts the person under irons-the police escort will be committing personal assault or mayhem if he handcuffs or fetters his charge. It is disgusting to see the mechanical way in which callous policemen, cavalier fashion, handcuff prisoner in their charge, indifferently keeping them company assured by the thought that the detainee is under 'iron' restraint.
Even orders of superiors are no valid justification as constitutional rights cannot be kept in suspense by superior orders, unless there is material, sufficiently stringent, to satisfy a reasonable mind that dangerous and desperate is the prisoner who is being transported and further that by adding to the escort party or other strategy he cannot be kept under control. It is hard to imagine such situations. We must repeat that it is unconscionable, indeed, outrageous, to make the strange classification between better class prisoners and ordinary prisoners in the matter of handcuffing. This elitist concept has no basis except that on the assumption the ordinary Indian is a sub-citizen and freedoms under Part III of the constitution are the privilege of the upper sector of society.
We must clarify a few other facets, in the light of Police Standing orders. Merely because a person is charged with a grave offence he cannot be handcuffed, He may be very quiet, well-behaved, docile or even timid. Merely because the offence is serious, the inference of escape proneness or desperate character does not follow. Many other conditions mentioned in the Police Manual are totally incongruous with what we have stated above and must fall as unlawful. Tangible testimony, documentary or other, or desperate behaviour, geared to making good his escaped alone will be a valid ground for handcuffing and fettering, and even this may be avoided by increasing the strength of the escorts or taking the prisoners in well protected vans. It is heartening to note that in some States in this country no handcuffing is done at all, save in rare cases, when taking under-trials to courts and the scary impression that unless the person is confined in irons he will run away is a convenient myth.
Some increase in the number of escorts, arming them if necessary, special training for escort police, transport of prisoners in protected vehicles, are easily available alternatives and, in fact, are adopted in some States in the country where handcuffing is virtually abolished, e.g. Tamil Nadu.
Even in cases where, in extreme circumstances, handcuffs have to be put on the prisoner, the escorting authority must record contemporaneously the reasons for doing so. Otherwise, under Art. 21 the procedure will be unfair and bad in law. Nor will mere recording the reasons do, as that can be a mechanical process mindlessly made. The escorting officer, whenever he handcuffs a prisoner produced in court, must show the reasons so recorded to the Presiding Judge and get his approval. Otherwise, there is no control over possible arbitrariness in applying handcuffs and fetters. The minions of the police establishment must make good their security recipes by getting judicial approval. And, once the court directs that handcuffs shall be off no escorting authority can overrule judicial direction. This is implicit in Art. 21 which insists upon fairness, reasonableness and justice in the very procedure which authorises stringent deprivation of life and liberty. The ratio in Maneka Gandhi's case and Sunil Batra's ease (supra), read in its proper light, leads us to this conclusion.
We, therefore, hold that the petition must be allowed and handcuffs on the prisoner dropped. We declare that the Punjab Police Manual, in so far as it puts the ordinary Indian beneath the better class breed (paragraphs 26.21A and 26 .22 of Chapter XXVI) is untenable and arbitrary and direct that Indian humans shall not be dichotomised and the common run discriminated against regarding handcuffs. The provisions in para 26.22 that every under-trial who is accused of a non-bailable offence punishable with more than 3 years prison term shall be routinely handcuffed is violative of Arts. 14, 19 and 21. So also para 26.22 (b) and
(c). The nature of the accusation is not the criterion. The clear and present danger of escape breaking out of the police control is the determinant. And for this there must be clear material, not glib assumption, record of reasons and judicial oversight and summary hearing and direction by the court where the victim is produced. We go further to hold that para 26.22 (1) (b), (e) and (f) also hover perilously near unconstitutionality unless read down as we herein direct. 'Desperate character' is who ? Handcuffs are not summary punishment vicariously imposed at police level, at once obnoxious and irreversible. Armed escorts, worth the salt, can overpower any unarmed under-trial and extraguards can make up exceptional needs. In very special situations, we do not rule out the application of irons The same reasoning appears to (e) and (f). Why torture the prisoner because others will demonstrate or attempt his rescue ? The plain law of under-trial custody is thus contrary to the unedifying escort practice. We remove the handcuffs from the law and humanize the police praxis to harmonise with the satvic values of Part III. The law must be firm, not foul, stern, not sadistic, strong, not callous.
Traditionally, it used to be thought that the seriousness of the possible sentence is the decisive factor for refusal of bail. The assumption was that this gave a temptation for the prisoner to escape. This is held by modern penologists to be a psychic fallacy and the bail jurisprudence evolved in the English and American Jurisdictions and in India now takes a liberal view. The impossibility of easy recapture supplied the temptation to jump custody, not the nature of the offence or sentence. Likewise, the habitual or violent 'escape propensities' proved by past conduct or present attempts are a surer guide to the prospects of running away on the sly or by use of force than the offence with which the person is charged or the sentence. Many a murderer, assuming him to be one, is otherwise a normal, well-behaved, even docile, person and it rarely registers in his mind to run away or force his escape. It is all indifferent escort or incompetent guard, not the Section with which the accused is charged, that must give the clue to the few escapes that occur. To abscond is a difficult adventure. No study of escapes and their reasons has been made by criminologists and the facile resort to animal keeping methods as an easy substitute appeals to Authority in such circumstances. 'Human rights', seriousness loses its valence where administrator's convenience prevails over cultural values. The fact remains for its empirical worth, that in some States, e.g. Tamil Nadu and Kerala, handcuffing is rarely done even in serious cases, save in those cases where evidence of dangerousness, underground operations to escape and the like is available. It is interesting that a streak of humanism had found its place in the law of handcuffing even in the old Bombay Criminal Manual which now prevails in the Gujarat State and perhaps in the Maharashtra State. But in the light of the constitutional imperatives we have discussed, we enlarge the law of personal liberty further to be in consonance with fundamental rights of persons in custody.
There is no genetic criminal tribe as such among humans. A disarmed arrestee has no hope of escape from the law if recapture is a certainty. He heaves a sigh of relief if taken into custody as against the desperate evasions of the chasing and the haunting fear that he may be caught anytime. It is superstitious to practise the barbarous bigotry of handcuffs as a routine regimen-an imperial heritage, well preserved. The problem is to get rid of mind- cuffs which make us callous to hand-cuffing a prisoner who may be a patient even in the hospital bed and tie him up with ropes to the legs of the cot.
Zoological culture cannot be compatible with reverence for life, even of a terrible criminal.
We have discussed at length what may be dismissed as of little concern. The reason is simple. Any man may, by a freak of fate, become an under-trial and every man, barring those who through wealth and political clout, are regarded as V.I.Ps, are ordinary classes and under the existing Police Manual may be man-handled by handcuffs. The peril to human dignity and fair procedure is, therefore, widespread and we must speak up. Of course, the 1977 and 1979 'instructions' we have referred to earlier show a change of heart. This Court must declare the law so that abuse by escort constables may be Repelled. We repeat with respect, the observations in Wiliam King Jackson v. D.E. Bishop. (1) We are not convinced that any rule or regulation as to the use of the strap, however seriously or sincerely conceived and drawn, will successfully prevent abuse. The present record discloses misinterpretation even of the newly adopted (2) Rules in this area are seen often to go unobserved.
(3) Regulations are easily circumvented (4) Corporal punishment is easily subject to abuse in the hands of the sadistic and the unscrupulous. (5) Where power to punish is granted to persons in lower levels of administrative authority, there is an inherent and natural difficulty in enforcing the limitations of that power.
Labels like 'desperate' and 'dangerous' are treacherous. Kent S. Miller, writing on 'dangerousness' says:
Considerable attention has been given to the role of psychological tests in predicting dangerous behaviour, and there is a wide range of opinion as to their value.
Thus far no, structured or projective test scale has been derived which, when used alone will predict violence in the individual case in a satisfactory manner. Indeed, none has been developed which will adequately postdict let alone predict, violent behaviour......
.... But we are on dangerous ground when deprivation of liberty occurs under such conditions. ....The practice has been to markedly overpredict. In addition, the courts and mental health professionals involved have systematically ignored statutory requirements relating to dangerousness and mental illness....
.... In balancing the interests of the state against the loss of liberty and rights of the individual, a prediction of dangerous behaviour must have a high level of probability, (a condition which currently does not exist) and the harm to be prevented should be considerable.
A law which handcuffs almost every undertrial (who, presumably, is innocent) is itself dangerous.
Before we conclude, we must confess that we have been influenced by the thought that some in authority are sometimes moved by the punitive passion for retribution through the process of parading under-trial prisoners cruelly clad in hateful irons. We must also frankly state that our culture, constitutional and other, revolts against such an attitude because, truth to tell.
'each tear that flows, when it could have been spared, is an accusation, and he commits a crime who with brutal inadvertancy crushes a poor earthworm.' We clearly declare-and it shall be obeyed from the Inspector General of Police and Inspector General of Prisons to the escort constable and the jailwarder-that the rule regarding a prisoner in transit between prison house and court house is freedom from hand-cuffs and the exception, under conditions of judicial supervision we have indicated earlier, will be restraints with irons, to be justified before or after. We mandate the judicial officer before when the prisoner is produced to interrogate the prisoner, as a rule, whether he has been subjected to handcuffs or other "irons" treatment and, if he has been, the official concerned shall be asked to explain the action forthwith in the light of this Judgment.
Supreme Court of India
Sunil Batra Etc vs Delhi Administration And Ors. Etc on 30 August, 1978
I hold that bar fetters are a barbarity generally and, like whipping, .must vanish. Civilised consciousness is hostile to torture within the walled campus. We hold that solitary confinement, cellular segregation and marginally modified editions of the same process are inhuman and irrational. More dangerous are these expedients when imposed by the untuned and untrained power of a jail superior who has, as part of his professional equipment, no course in human psychology, stressology or physiology, who has to depend on no medical or psychiatric examination, prior to infliction of irons or solitary, who has no obligation to hear the victim before harming him, whose 'reasons' are in English on the histcry- tickets and therefore unknowable and in the Journal to which the prisoner has no access. The revisory power of the Inspector General of Prison, is illusory when the prisoner does not know of his right to seek revision and the Inspector General has no duty to visit the solitary or 'fettered' creatures or to examine every case of such infliction. Jail visitors have no powers to cancel the superintendent's orders nor obligation to hold enquiry save to pity and to make remarks. Periodical parades prisoners, when the visitors or dignitaries call for a turn-out, prove a circus in a zoo from a practical standpoint or/and journal entries and history-tickets a voodoo according to rule, the key point to be noted being that after this public exhibition within the prison. the complaining prisoners are marked men at the iron mercy of the hierarchy. there being no active legal aid project busy within the prison. This ferocious rule of law, rule and nude, cannot be sustain as anything but arbitrary, unreasonable and procedurally heartless. The peril to its life from the lethal stroke of Articles 14, 19 and 21 read with 13 needs no far-fetched argument. The abstruse search for curative guideline in such words as 'dangerous' and 'necessary` forgetting the totalitarian backdrop of stone walls and iron bars, is bidding farewell to raw reality and embracing verbal marga. The law is not abracadabra but at once pragmatic and astute and does not surrender its power before scary exaggerations of security by prison bosses. Alternatives to 'solitary' and 'irons' are available to prison technology, give the will, except where indifference, incompetence and unimaginativeness hold prison authorities prisoner. Social justice cannot sleep if the Constitution hangs limp where its consumers most . need its humanism.
The correction and direction indicated by the Constitution have been broadly spelt out by me so that progressive prison reforms may move towards 'fresh woods and pastures new'. i.
1. I uphold the vires of Section 30 and Section 56 of the Prisons Act, as humanistically read by interpretation. These and other pro visions, being somewhat out of tune with current penological values and mindless to human-rights moorings, will, I hope, be revised by fresh legislation. It is a pity that Prison Manuals are mostly callous colonial compilations and even their copies are beyond prisoners' ken. Punishments, in civilised societies, must not degrade human dignity or wound flesh and spirit. The cardinal sentencing goal is correctional; changing the consciousness of the criminal to ensure social defence. Where prison treatment abandons the reformatory purpose and practises dehumanizing techniques it is wasteful, counter-productive and irrational, hovering on the hostile brink of unreasonableness (Art. l9).' Nor can torture tactics jump the constitutional gauntlet by wearing a 'preventive' purpose. Naturally, inhumanity, masked as security, is outlawed beyond backdoor entry, because what is banned is brutality. be its necessity punitive or prophylactic.
2. I hold that solitary confinement, even if mollified and modified marginally, is not sanctioned by Sec. 30 for prisoners 'under sentence of death'. But it is legal under that Section to separate such sentencees from the rest of the prison community during hours when prisoners are generally locked in. I also uphold the special watch, day and night, of such sentencees by guards. Infraction of privacy may be inevitable, but guards must concede minimum human vacy in practice.
3. By necessary implication, prisoners 'under sentence of death' not' shall not be denied any of the community amenities, including games, newspapers, books, moving around and meeting prisoners and visitors, subject to reasonable regulation of prison management. Be it noted that Sec. 30 is no substitute for sentence of imprisonment and merely prescribes the manner of organising safe jail custody authorised by Sec. 366 of the Cr. P.C.
4. More importantly if the prisoner desires loneliness for reflection and remorse, for prayers and making peace with his maker, or op portunities for meeting family or friends, such facilities shall be liberally granted, having regard to the stressfull spell of terrestrial farewell his soul may be passing through the compassion society owes to him whose life it takes.
5. The crucial holding under Sec. 30(2) is that a person is not 'under sentence of death', even if the sessions court has sentenced him to death subject to confirmation by the High Court. He is not 'under A sentence of death' even if the High Court imposes, by confirmation or fresh appellate infliction, death penalty, so long as an appeal to the Supreme Court is likely to be or has been moved or is pending. even if this Court has awarded capital sentence, Sec. 30 does not cover him so long as his petition for mercy to the Governor and/or to the President permitted by the Constitution, Code and Prison Rules, has not been disposed. Of course, once rejected by the Governor and the President, and on further application there is no stay of execution by the authorities, he is 'under sentence of death', even if he goes on making further mercy petitions. During that interregnum he attracts the custodial segregation specified in Sec. 30(2), subject to the ameliorative meaning assigned to the provision. To be 'under sentence of death' means 'to be under a finally executable death sentence'.
6. I do not rule out further restraint on such a condemned prisoner if clear and present danger of violence or likely violation of custody is, for good reasons, made out, with due regard to the rules of fairplay implied in natural justice. Minimal hearing shall be accorded to the affected if he is subjected to further severity.
1. Sec. 56 must be tamed and trimmed by the rule of law and shall not turn dangerous by making the Prison 'brass' an imperium in imperio. The Superintendent's power shall be pruned and his discretion bridled in the manner indicated. E
2. Under-trials shall be deemed to be in custody, but not undergoing punitive imprisonment. So much so, they shall be accorded more relaxed conditions than. convicts.
3. Fetters, especially bar fetters, shall be shunned ns violative of human dignity, within and without prisons. The indiscriminate resort to handcuffs when accused persons are taken to and from court and the expedient of forcing irons on prison inmates are illegal and shall be stopped forthwith save in a small category of cases dealt with next below. Reckless ' handcuffing and chaining in public degrades, puts to shame finer sensibilities and is a slur on our culture.
4. Where an undertrial has a credible tendency for violence and escape a humanely graduated degree of 'iron' restraint is permissible if only if-other disciplinary alternatives are unworkable. The burden of proof of the ground is on the custodian. And if he fails, he will be liable in law.
5. The 'iron' regimen shall in no case go beyond the intervals, conditions and maxima laid down for punitive 'irons'. They shall be for short spells, light and never applied if sores exist.
6. The discretion to impose 'irons' is subject to quasi-judicial over sight, even if purportedly imposed for reasons of security.
7. A previous hearing, minimal may be, shall be afforded to the victims. In exceptional cases, the hearing may be soon after. The rule in Gill's case and Maneka Gandhi's case gives the guidelines.
8. The grounds for 'fetters' shall be given to the victim. And when the decision to fetter is made, the reasons shall be recorded in the journal and in the history ticket of the prisoner in the State language. If he is a stranger to that language it shall be communicated to him as far as possible, in his language. This applies to cases as much of prison punishment as of 'safety' fetters.
9 Absent provision for independent review of preventive and punitive action, for discipline or security, such action shall be invalid as arbitrary and unfair and unreasonable. The prison officials will then be liable civilly and criminally for hurt to the person of the prisoner. The State will urgently set up or strengthen the necessary infra- structure and process in this behalf-it already exists in embryo in the Act.
10. Legal aid shall be given to prisoners to seek justice from prison authorities, and, if need be, to challenge the decision in court-in cases where they are too poor to secure on their own. If lawyer's services. are not given, the decisional process becomes unfair and unreasonable, especially because the rule of law perishes for a disabled prisoner if counsel is unapproachable and beyond purchase. By and large, prisoners are poor, lacking legal literacy, under the trembling control of the jailor, at his mercy as it were, and unable to meet relations or friends to take legal action. Where a remedy is all but dead the right lives; only in print. Art. 39 A is relevant in the context. Art. 19 will be violated in such a case as the process will be unreasonable. Art. 21 will be infringed since the procedure is unfair and is arbitrary. In Maneka Gandhi the rule has been stated beyond mistake.
ll. No 'fetters' shall continue beyond day time as nocturnal fetters on locked-in detenus are ordinarily uncalled for, viewed from considerations of safety.
12. The prolonged continuance of 'irons', as a punitive or preventive step, shall be subject to previous approval by an external examiner like a Chief Judicial Magistrate or Sessions Judge who shall briefly hear the victim and record reasons. They are ex-officio visitors of most central prisons.
13. The Inspector General of Prisons shall, with quick despatch consider revision petitions by fettered prisoners and direct the continuation or discontinuation of the irons. In the absence of such prompt decision, the fetters shall be deemed to have been negatived and shall A be removed.
Such meticulous clarification has become necessary only because the prison practices have hardly inspired confidence and the subject is human rights. Because prison officials must be responsible for the security of the prison and the safety of its population, they must have a wide discretion in promulgating rules to govern the prison population and in imposing disciplinary sanctions for their violation. But any humanist-jurist will be sceptic like the American Judges who in William King Jackson v. D. E. Bishop(1) observed:
"(1) We are not convinced that any rule or regulation as to the use of the strap, however seriously or sincerely conceived and drawn, will successfully prevent abuse. The pre sent record discloses misinterpretation even of the newly adopted . . .
(2) Rules in this area are seen often to go unobserved. .
(3) Regulations are easily circumvented (4) Corporal punishment is easily subject to abuse in the hands of the sadistic and the unscrupulous. (5) Where power to punish is granted to persons in lower levels of administrative authority, there is an inherent and natural difficulty in enforcing the limitations of that power."
Supreme Court of India
Sunil Batra vs Delhi Administration on 20 December, 1979
We may, at this stage, go in greater detail into the functional expansion of habeas corpus writs in the current milieu especially because counsel on both sides have compellingly contended for an authoritative pronouncement by this court in favour of a broader jurisdiction.
We have earlier noticed that this valuable writ is capable of multiple uses as developed in the American Jurisdiction. Such is the view expressed by many legal writers. In Harvard Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Law Review, the view has been expressed that beyond the conventional blinkers, courts have been to examine the manner in which an inmate is held or treated during the currency of his sentence. Similar is the thinking expressed by other writers, R. J. Sherpa in "The Law of Habeas Corpus" (1976) Edn. Juvenal, Satires in 72 Yale Law Journal 506 (1963). In American Jurisprudence there is a pregnant observation:
The writ is not and never has been a static, narrow formalistic remedy. Its scope has grown to achieve its purpose-the protection of individuals against erosion of the right to be free from wrongful restraints on their liberty.
Corpus Juris, 2d, Vol. 39, page 274, para 7 strikes a similar note, away from the traditional strain. The courts in America have, through the decisional process, brought the rule of law into the prison system pushing back, protanto, the hands-off doctrine. In the leading case of Coffin v. Richard the Court of Appeal observed, delineating the ambit and uses of the writ of habeas corpus:
The Government has the absolute right to hold prisoners for offences against it but it also has the correlative duty to protect them against assault or injury from any quarter . while so held. A prisoner is entitled to the writ of habeas corpus, when, though lawfully in custody, he is deprived of some right to which he is lawfully entitled even in his confinement, the deprivation of which serves to make his imprisonment more burdensome than the law allows or curtails his liberty to a greater extent than the law permits.
When a man possesses a substantial right, the court will be diligent in finding a way to protect it. The fact that a person is legally in prison does not prevent the use of habeas corpus to protect his other inherent rights....The judge is not limited to a simple remand or discharge of the prisoner's civil rights be respected......
It is significant that the United State Supreme Court has even considered as suitable for habeas relief, censorship of prisoners' mail and the ban on the use of law students to conduct interviews with prison inmates in matters of legal relief. In Procunier v. Martinez these two questions fell for decision and the court exercised jurisdiction even in such an internal matter. In Johnson v. Avery a disciplinary action was challenged by a prisoner through a writ of habeas corpus. This indicates the extension of the nature of the writ in the American jurisdiction. Incidentally and interestingly, there is reference to some States in the United States experimenting with programmes of allowing senior law students to service the penitentiaries. At a later stage, when we concretise definite directives, we may have occasion to refer to the use of senior law students for rendering legal aid to prisoners; and so it is worthwhile extracting a passage from Johnson v. Avery (supra) with reference to the Kansas Law School Programme in Prisons at Leavenworth:
The experience at Leavenworth has shown that there have been very few attacks upon the (prison) administra- :
tion; that prospective frivolous litigation has been screened out and that where the law school felt the prisoner had a good cause of action relief was granted in a great percentage of cases. A large part of the activity was disposing of long outstanding detainers lodged against the inmates. In addition, the programme handles civil matters such as domestic relations problems and compensation claims. Even where there has been no tangible success, the fact that the inmate had someone on the outside listen to him and analyse his problems had a most beneficial effect. We think that these programmes have been beneficial not only to the inmates but to the students, the staff and the courts.
Incidentally, the presence of law students at the elbow of the prisoner has a preventive effect on ward and warden.
The content of our constitutional liberties being no less, the dynamics of habeas writs they developed help the judicial process here. Indeed. the full potential of Arts. 21, 19, 14, after Maneka Gandhi (supra), has been unfolded by this Court in Hoskot and Batra. Today, human rights jurisprudence in India has a constitutional status and sweep, thanks to Art. 21 so that this Magna Carta may well toll the knell of human bondage beyond civilised limits.
"Convicts are not, by mere reason of the conviction, denuded of all the fundamental rights which they otherwise possess. A compulsion under the authority of law, following upon a conviction, to live in a prison-house entails by its own force the deprivation of fundamental freedoms like the right to move freely throughout the territory of India 11 or the right to 'practise' a profession. A man of profession would thus stand stripped of his right to hold consultations while serving out his sentence. But the Constitution guarantees other freedoms like the right to acquire, hold and dispose of property for the exercise of which incarceration . can be no impediment. Likewise, even a convict is entitled G to the precious right guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution that he shall not be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law."
We think it proper to suggest that in our country of past colonial subjection and consequent trepidation in life, publicity officially is necessary for rights to be appreciated even by the beneficiaries. Therefore, large notice boards displaying the rights and responsibilities on prisoners may be hung up in prominent places within the prison in the language of the people. We are dealing with the mechanics of bringing the law within the wakeful ken of the affected persons.
You cannot rehabilitate a man through brutality and disrespect...If you treat a man like an animal, then you must expect him to act like one. For every action, there is a reaction...And in order for an inmate, to act like a human being you must trust him as such.. You can't spit in his face and expect him to smile and-say thank you.
We understand this provision to mean that the Sessions Judge, District Magistrate or their nominees shall hear complaints, examine all documents, take evidence, interview prisoners and check to see if there is deviance, disobedience, delinquency or the like which infringes upon the rights of prisoners. They have a duty "to hear and bring to notice any complaint or representation made to him by any prisoner". Nothing clearer is needed to empower these judicial officers to investigate and adjudicate upon grievances. We direct the Sessions Judges concerned, under his lock and seal, to keep a requisite number of grievance boxes in the prison and give necessary directions to The Superintendent to see that free access is afforded to put in complaints of encroachments, injuries or torture by any prisoner, where he needs remedial action. Such boxes shall hot be tampered with by any one and shall be opened only under the authority of the Sessions Judge. We need hardly emphasise the utmost vigilance and authority that the Sessions Judge must sensitively exercise in this situation since prisoner's personal liberty depends, in this undetectable campus upon his awareness, activism, adjudication and enforcement. Constitutional rights shall not be emasculated by the insouciance of judicial officers.
The prison authorities shall not, in any manner, obstruct or noncooperate with reception or enquiry into the complaints otherwise, prompt punitive action must follow the High Court or the Supreme Court must be apprised of the grievance so that habeas corpus may issue after due hearing. Para 53 is important in this context and we reproduce it below:
53. All visitors shall be afforded every facility for observing the state of the jail, and the management thereof, and shall be allowed access under proper regulations, to all parts of the jail and to every prisoner confined therein.
Every visitor should have the power to call for and inspects any book or other record in the jail unless the Superintendent, for reasons to be recorded in writing, declines on the ground that its production is undesirable. Similarly, every visitor should have the right to see any prisoner and to put any questions to him out of the hearing of any jail officer. E There should be one visitor's book for both classes of visitors, their remarks should in both cases be forwarded to the Inspector General who should pass such orders as he thinks necessary, and a copy of the Inspector-General's order should be sent to the visitor concerned.
Paras 53-B and 53-D are not only supplementary but procedurally vital, being protective provisions from the stand-point of prisoners. We except them here for double emphasis although adverted to earlier:
53-B. All visitors, official and non-official, at every visit, shall-
(a) inspect the barracks, cells, wards, workshed and other buildings of the jail generally and cooked food;
(b) ascertain whether considerations of health, cleanliness, and security are attended to, whether proper management and discipline are maintained in every respect, and whether any prisoner is illegally detrained, Or is detained for an undue length of time, while awaiting trial;
(c) examine jail registers and records;
(d) hear, attend to all representations and petitions made, by or on behalf of prisoners; and
(e) direct, if deemed advisable, that any such representations or petitions be forwarded to Government.
53-D. No prisoner shall be punished for any statement made by him to a visitor unless an enquiry made by a Magistrate results in a finding that it is false.
We hope-indeed, we direct-the judicial and other official visitors to live upto the expectations of these two rules and strictly implement their mandate. Para 54 is also part of this package of visitatorial provisions with invigilatory relevance. We expect compliance with these provisions and if the situation demands it, report to the High Court for action in the case of any violation of any fundamental right of a prisoner.
The long journey through jail law territory proves that a big void exists in legal remedies for prisoner injustices and so constitutional mandates can become living companions of banished humans only if non-traditional procedures, duly oriented personnel and realistic reliefs meet the functional challenge. Broadly speaking, habeas corpus powers and administrative measures are the pillars of prisoners' rights. The former is invaluable and inviolable, but for an illiterate, timorous, indigent inmate community judicial remedies remain frozen. Even so, this constitutional power must discard formalities, dispense with full particulars and demand of the detainer all facts to decide if humane and fair treatment prevails, constitutionally sufficient and comporting with the minimum international standards for treatment of prisoners. Publicity within the prison community of court rulings in this area will go a long way to restore the morale of inmates and, hopefully, of the warders. So we direct the Delhi Administration to reach, in Hindi, the essentials of this ruling to the ken of the jail people.
The stress that we lay is on the need of the Court to be dynamic and diversified in meeting out remedies to prisoners. Not merely the contempt power but also the power to create ad hoc, and use the services of, officers of justice must be brought into play.
Komentarji