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EditorialsCustodial ViolenceTortureArticle 21Dk BasuConvention Against TortureNHRCHuman Rights
Custodial violence, torture, ill-treatment and deaths in police or judicial custody, is among the gravest abuses a state can commit, because it is the state turning its coercive power against a person in its own care. It persists in India despite constitutional guarantees and Supreme Court safeguards. Why does it endure, and how can effective investigation be reconciled with the absolute prohibition of torture?
- Article 21 guarantees the right to life and personal liberty, which the Supreme Court has read to include the right against torture and to dignity even in custody. Article 20(3) protects against self-incrimination, and Article 22 guarantees rights on arrest (information of grounds, access to a lawyer, production before a magistrate within 24 hours).
- In D K Basu v State of West Bengal (1997), the Supreme Court laid down binding arrest and detention guidelines: a clear arrest memo witnessed and counter-signed, informing a relative or friend, a medical examination of the arrested person, and maintenance of custody records, all to prevent custodial abuse. These are now reflected in arrest provisions of the criminal procedure code (now the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023).
- India signed the UN Convention against Torture (1997) but has not yet ratified it, and a standalone domestic anti-torture law has been recommended (including by the Law Commission's 273rd Report) but not enacted; verify the latest status.
- The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) requires that custodial deaths be reported within 24 hours and conducts inquiries; it can recommend compensation and prosecution. Constitutional courts award compensation for custodial violations as a public-law remedy.
- Drivers of custodial violence include pressure to extract confessions, reliance on coercion in place of scientific investigation, weak accountability, and a culture that tolerates "rough handling" of suspects.
For zero tolerance and stronger safeguards
- Torture is absolutely prohibited; no end (confession, deterrence, public anger) justifies it, and a state that tortures forfeits moral authority and the rule of law.
- Confessions extracted under torture are unreliable and inadmissible; coercion produces wrong convictions and lets the guilty escape. Scientific, forensic investigation is both humane and effective.
- Enforceable safeguards (D K Basu compliance, mandatory medical examination, custody CCTV, swift independent inquiry) deter abuse and protect honest officers from false claims.
The pressures cited in defence of coercion
- Police face public and political pressure for quick results in heinous crimes, with thin manpower and weak forensic support.
- Some argue that procedural safeguards hamper interrogation of hardened or terror-linked suspects.
- Accountability mechanisms are slow, and officers fear that any custodial death, however caused, will end careers, which can paradoxically encourage cover-ups rather than candour.
The non-negotiable starting point is that torture is never permissible. India should ratify the Convention against Torture and enact a dedicated anti-torture law with clear definitions, command responsibility and victim compensation. Make the D K Basu safeguards real, with CCTV in police stations and interrogation rooms (as the Supreme Court has directed), mandatory and independent medical examination, and prompt, independent inquiry into every custodial death by an agency outside the chain of command. Shift investigation from confession-extraction to forensic and scientific methods, with training and resources to match. Strengthen the NHRC and State Human Rights Commissions and ensure prosecution, not just compensation, for proven abuse. Effective policing and the prohibition of torture are not in conflict; the first depends on the second.
The cell where a citizen is held is also the place where the state's promise is most easily broken. A democracy that permits its police to beat the truth out of a suspect has already lost the truth, and the rule of law with it. The strength of a free state lies not in the force it can apply to the powerless in its custody, but in the restraint it shows them.
Thesis to adapt: Custodial violence is the gravest betrayal of constitutional policing; ending it requires ratifying the anti-torture convention, enacting an anti-torture law, enforcing the D K Basu safeguards, and replacing confession-driven investigation with scientific methods.