Need For The Prevention Of Custodial Torture In India

Preha Nagpal & Ms Kunika Kanodia, Symbiosis Law School, Pune

ABSTRACT

Malfeasance results in the gravest abuses of human rights in the world. Custodial Torture has become so frequent in our society that even common people feel it to be a regular practice of the police officials to interrogate a criminal. Custodial torture is one of those crimes that don’t have proper punishing laws and rarely there is someone who has been made to face the consequences. This encourages the men in uniform to use their powers and indulge in custodial torture and still remain unaccounted and unpunished for any crime. Custodial Violence put forth severe issues on the police department’s openness, accountability, and functioning, and goes against the fundamentals of ethics, culture, and human rights law. Deaths in custody jeopardize not just the democratic fabric and human rights ethos, but also the rule of law and constitutionalism as envisioned in our highest law of the nation. This paper intends to provide the reader with a thorough understanding of how multifaceted the issue of custodial torture is. The author has elaborated the national and international safeguards and judicial perspective to tackle the issue. Further, this paper explores the existence of custodial abuse way back from the ancient Indian Era and demonstrates how, even after so many years of independence, India has failed to establish a lasting solution.

Keywords: Malfeasance, Custodial Torture, rule of law, UNCAT, Anti- Torture Bill.