Congress leader Ashwani Kumar calls for comprehensive anti-custodial torture law

Congress leader Ashwani Kumar on Monday called for a comprehensive anti-custodial torture law in aid of the human right to dignity and guarantee against bodily harm, a day after Chief Justice of India N V Ramana said that threat to human rights is the highest in police stations.

In a statement, Kumar, who has been a former union law minister, said the CJI reportedly saying that violations of sacrosanct human rights concerning privacy, liberty and dignity of the individual occur during custody and custodial interrogation is a grim reminder of a painful reality that calls for urgent redressal.

"That this is so, despite the Supreme Court ordering guidelines to prevent custodial torture, calls for a comprehensive anti-custodial torture legislation in aid of the human right to dignity and guarantee against bodily harm," he said.

CJI Ramana said on Sunday said the threat to human rights is the highest in police stations as custodial torture and other police atrocities still prevail in India and even the privileged are "not spared third-degree treatment".

"The statement of the Chief Justice of India should spur the government into immediate action. Its failure to take urgent measures would be an affront to the conscience of our dignitarian Constitution," Kumar said.

"We know that torture is a wound in the soul and that with every act of torture, civilization takes a step backward and 'the flag of humanity flies at half mast'," he said.

The CJI while the launch of a legal service mobile application on Sunday said to keep police excesses in check, dissemination of information about the constitutional right to legal aid and availability of free legal aid services is necessary. He also batted for a nationwide effort for the "sensitisation of police officers".

Kumar said on Monday that the Supreme Court, according to its own declared law is obliged to enforce its decisions and the mandate of Article 21, even as the government is obliged to act as per its advice and judgments.

As the ultimate custodian of the constitutional conscience, the Supreme Court is expected to intervene proactively and purposively to ensure that the Government of India intervenes to honour its constitutional and international treaty obligations, the former law minister said.

"The Government of India must do so inter alia by enacting the comprehensive anti-custodial legislation proposed by the then government as early as 2010 by a bipartisan select committee of Parliament," he said.