Compensation to victims of custodial torture

New Delhi : The law commission has recommended compensation to victims of custodial torture and deterrent punishment up to life imprisonment of the perpetrators.

The recommendations assume significance against the backdrop of frequent allegations that police resort to third-degree torture to extract confessions and statements from the accused.

The commission’s report, authored by its chairperson Justice (retd) B.S. Chauhan, was submitted to Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday. It also suggested that the country should ratify the UN Convention against Torture to tackle the difficulties in extraditing criminals.

The Law Commission is a statutory body whose assistance is often sought by the Supreme Court and the high courts in evolving contemporary laws. However, the recommendations are not binding on the government.

While deciding on what amounts to torture by a public servant, the commission has suggested a definition wide enough to include inflicting injury, either intentionally or involuntarily, or even an attempt to cause injury, physical, mental or psychological.

Based on the analysis of various aspects of torture, the commission has prepared a draft Prevention of Torture Bill, 2017, which it annexed to the report submitted to the government.

The commission made the following recommendations:

* Ratification of the UN Convention against Torture to tide over the difficulties in getting criminals extradited

* Amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973, and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, to accommodate provisions regarding compensation and vesting the burden of proof on accused officers that they are not involved in torture

* Stringent punishment to curb the menace of custodial torture, including life imprisonment and fine

* Courts should decide on compensation after taking into account various facets of each case, such as the nature, purpose, extent and manner of injury, including mental agony caused to the victim. The courts will bear in mind the socio-economic background of the victim and will ensure that the compensation covers the expenses on treatment and rehabilitation

* Effective mechanism to protect the victims of torture, the complainants and the witnesses against possible threats, violence or ill treatment

* The State should own the responsibility for the injuries caused by its agents on citizens, and that the principle of sovereign immunity cannot override the rights assured by the Constitution.