Tamil Nadu - Madurai   

Undertrial moves court against handcuffing

Staff Reporter

"To fetter his limbs with steel... is to defile his dignity"

MADURAI: An undertrial prisoner has moved the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court against handcuffing him during transit between the Madurai Central Prison and the Judicial Magistrate Court at Sattur in Virudhunagar district.

Disposing of the petition, Justice G. Rajasuria said that normally the accused should not be handcuffed unless there were compelling reasons to do so. The police could not handcuff a person just because he had once been convicted in some other case.

The Judge agreed with the petitioner's counsel, R. Alagumani, that the Supreme Court had time and again held that the police did not have any authority to handcuff without a specific order passed by the Magistrate concerned.

"Inhuman"

The apex court, in Prem Shankar Shukla Vs. Delhi administration (1980), said that handcuffing was prima facie inhuman and unreasonable.

"Absent fair procedure and objective monitoring to inflict `irons' is to resort to zoological strategies repugnant to Article 21 (Protection of life and personal liberty)... To prevent the escape of an under trial (prisoner) 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 hours in the courts is to torture him, defile his dignity, vulgarise society and foul the soul of our Constitutional culture," the judgement read.

In Bhim Singh MLA Vs. State of Jammu and Kashmir, the Supreme Court said that that the police officers should have the greatest regard for personal liberty of citizens. "Police officers who are the custodians of law and order... should not flout the laws by stooping to bizarre acts of lawlessness.

They should not become depredators of civil liberties. Their duty is to protect and not to abduct."

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

The Hindu Opportunities Fair commences at university
A promising opportunity
Bench bars constables from writing Sub-Inspector exam
Undertrial moves court against handcuffing
Dhan Foundation's documentary on water conservation screened
Pattabhishekam performed to Goddess Meenakshi
Efforts on to achieve behavioural change
Court drops proceedings against Tuticorin Collector
Trade body against RBI move
Fire safety course held
`Pattabhishekam' performed
Around the City
In Madurai Today
Criminals turn ingenious

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu