Torture in India: Morality of Torture and Rights of Prisoners in India

Atika Singh Rawal
Law College Dehradun, Uttaranchal University

Volume III, Issue III, 2020

Torture as an act is not just limited to the dictatorships but also personnel in the world’s largest democracies also use torture as a weapon and use multiple methods of torture against the arrested, the suspected and the prisoners as well.

Though torture is an International crime yet countries around the world yet use it in the war against terrorism. This paper discusses the morality of torture in light of the ticking bomb problem. Whether torture is justified in some circumstances where there is a question of the greater good.

This paper further delves into how India as the largest democracy in the world with multiple laws and judgments with regards to protecting the rights of the arrested the prisoners has failed to protect their basic human rights and how custodial torture has become a disease in India. It also discusses the problems with the Anti-torture bill that is still pending in the Parliament since 2010. It also discusses the various recommendations of various police commissions as well as the National Human Rights Commission. To sum up it to:-

  1. Discuss the morality of torture.
  2. Discuss the International Jurisprudence with regard to torture specifically under the UNCAT, the ECHR and ICCPR
  3. Discuss the Laws in India protecting the rights of the arrested,
  4. Discuss the jurisprudence leading up to the Anti torture bill that was introduced in the Parliament in 2010
  5. Analyse the various judgments of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India
  6. Discuss the rights of women prisoners in India.

 

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