Kerala - Kochi   

Video proceedings will pose a danger, say activists

KOCHI: The State Government’s move to allow the police to keep an arrested person in custody without presenting him or her personally in court has drawn flak from the Committee against the Death Penalty, which campaigns for the human rights of prisoners and detainees. The government is moving a Bill in the ongoing Assembly session to amend the Code of Criminal and other rules so that the police will not have to present the arrested or remanded person in court. The amendment will, instead, allow the magistrate to talk to the arrested through videoconferencing and make a decision on custody.

This will speed up trial, cut expenditure, lower the need for police escorts and scale down inconvenience to the police and jail authorities.

“But the implications of the amendment are dire,” K. Gireeshkumar, convenor of the committee, told The Hindu.

“It has a far-reaching adverse impact on the personal safety and human rights of the arrested or remanded persons.” Regrettably, politicians, human rights activists, jurists and civil society have not been aware of the implications of the “black law,” as the Government has not let the amendment Bill to be a talking point, he said.

K. Rajmohan, joint convener of the committee, said the code’s insistence that an arrested person be produced in a court of law within 24 hours of the arrest and that a detainee be produced at regular intervals was a crucial provision for the personal safety and human rights of the individual.

It was an efficient safeguard against physical and mental torture of the arrested or remanded person by the police or jail officials. In a State notorious for brutalities by the police and other uniformed personnel, this legal safeguard was especially important. He referred to a recent remark by the Kerala High Court that lock-ups were turning into death chambers. The committee functionaries said the magistrate would not be able to fully evaluate the physical and mental conditions of the arrested person in a videoconference.

The Government is planning to make the videoconferencing between the magistrate and the arrested legal by amending Code of Criminal Procedure sections 167 (2) b and 267 and Section 20 of the Criminal Rules of Practice, Kerala, 1982.

Section 167 (2) b says: “No magistrate shall authorise detention in any custody under this Section unless the accused is produced before him.” According to Section 267, “Power to require attendance of prisoner — (1) Whenever, in the course of an inquiry, trial or other proceedings under this Code, it appears to a criminal court, — (a) that a person confined or detained in a prison should be brought before the court for answering to a charge of an offence, or for the purpose of any proceedings against him, or, (b) that it is necessary for the ends of justice to examine such person as witness; the court may make an order requiring the officer in charge of the prison to produce such a person before the court for answering to the charge or for the purpose of such proceeding or, as the case may be, for giving evidence.”

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