CJI Ramana joins league of predecessors in judiciary who demanded end to custodial torture, death

Chief Justice of India (CJI) NV Ramana has said that custodial torture and other police atrocities still prevail in India and “the threat to human rights and bodily integrity is the highest in police stations." Even the privileged are not spared third-degree treatment, he added.

Addressing an event organised by the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) on 8 August, he said it was necessary to “bridge the gap of accessibility to justice between the highly privileged and the most vulnerable” for becoming a society governed by the rule of law. He asked the organisation to carry out “nationwide sensitisation of police officers”. With his comment on custodial torture in India, Ramana has joined a league of former CJIs and Supreme Court Justices who had in the past spoken about the issue and the need to eradicate it. Here are some of the instances of what his predecessors had said about it —

(With input from agencies)