“I was kept inside the solitary Anda cell... I was not even taken to the jail hospital, which is a street away, and was not given any medicine.”
This is how Professor G.N. Saibaba, who suffers from 90 per cent disability, recounts the torture he suffered inside Nagpur Jail's infamous Anda cell during his long incarceration.
The interview with the wheel-chair bound academician by The Hindu on April 8, 2016, became a rallying cry in the Supreme Court against the use of torture as an instrument of “human degradation” by State authorities.
The interview was highlighted in a writ petition submitted by former Union Law Minister Ashwani Kumar. It led a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur on Tuesday to direct the Centre and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to file their responses explaining why the Central government had delayed the promulgation of a stand-alone, comprehensive law defining and punishing torture.
“As on date, India does not have any legislation that defines the expression 'torture' or 'custodial torture'. Nor is there a law dealing specifically with torture in custody and the various specific aspects concerned with custodial torture and those involved in the incidents of such torture,” the petition, argued by Mr. Kumar in person, contended.
Mr. Kumar argued that a bare perusal of the Indian Penal Code makes it apparent that its provisions “do not specifically and comprehensively address the various aspects of the custodial torture and are grossly inadequate to address the spiralling situation of custodial violence across the country”.
He even pointed out to that the National Human Rights Commission keeps count of incidents of custodial torture only if it leads to death. “Unlike custodial deaths, the police are not mandatorily required to report cases of torture which do not result in deaths to the NHRC,” Mr. Kumar contended, and so a majority of the cases go unreported.
Mr. Kumar said India, which had signed the UN Convention against Torture in 1997, has still not ratified the Convention which defines torture as a criminal offence.
Mr. Kumar said no steps have been taken to implement the Prevention and Torture Bill 2010 even six years after it was passed by the Lok Sabha on May 6, 2010 and recommended by a Select Committee of the Rajya Sabha of which he had been Chairman.
He informed that the Centre has avoided an independent legislation on torture, saying that some States were not in favour of such a law and the Indian Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code were more than sufficient.
“It is not understood at all as to why the Government is resisting a standalone legislation to prevent custodial torture considering the mandate of Article 21 and India’s international obligations. A standalone legislation will certainly go a long way in creating the necessary environment to prevent abuse of custodial torture and human dignity of citizen,” the petition contended.
