The Hindu : File contempt cases if apex court order is violated: former DGP

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 08, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

File contempt cases if apex court order is violated: former DGP

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI, FEB. 7. Human rights activists should file contempt of court cases against officials or police personnel who violate the Supreme Court's order on the rights of persons taken into custody, the former Director-General of Police, V.R. Lakshminarayanan, said here, today.

Participating in a convention organised by the Campaign for Custodian Justice and Abolition of Torture (CCJAT), he noted that the Supreme Court had laid down a procedure for arresting a person in the ``D.K. Basu vs. State of West Bengal'' case. It has also enunciated the rights of a person taken into custody. Mr. Lakshminarayanan said any violation of these principles should be treated as contempt of court. Activists should treat them so, file cases and seek heavy damages from the violators.

``It is total failure of criminal justice system which has to be pulled up and reorganised,'' he opined. The judiciary needed to be aware of these trends. Judges also needed to be sensitised on issues concerning custodial rights, besides violations by the police.

Various reforms had to be introduced in the police force to stop custody-related problems and torture, said the CCJAT convener, M. Jeeva. The force should be divided into two, one to attend to day-to-day problems and to maintain law and order and the other could take up the work of investigating various cases, he suggested.

Shantha Kumari, an advocate, said women in custody were being treated badly. A group of women, who organised a protest, demanding water, was taken into custody and detained for more than 15 days. Even in prisons, women were subjected to sexual violence, she alleged. Activists conducted several `Gender Sensitisation Programmes' for women police personnel. But, even after such programmes, women continued to face problems while in custody, she said.

In rural areas, the police pick up women and children from a house, to get hold of an absconding male. Ms. Shantha Kumari wanted the organisation to take up the issue seriously to protect the rights of innocent women and children. Many of the custodial-related issues could be solved only by democratisation of the police force, she said.

V. Karuppan, former IAS officer, said the law, which was meant to protect the underprivileged, was used for punishing them.

T.R.S. Mani, secretary, All-India Trade Union Congress; N.G.R. Prasad, advocate, and Thiagu, human rights activist, participated.

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