India's police stations are threats to human rights, says chief justice

THE chief justice of the Supreme Court of India recently slammed police brutality to say the country’s most dangerous places that threaten human rights are its police stations.

On August 8, NV Ramana, in his address to the National Legal Services Authority (NLSA) in Delhi, pointed at the human rights abuse by the forces in uniform in India, notably custodial torture and other atrocities particularly towards the marginalised and vulnerable sections of the society. He said “threat to human rights and bodily integrity are the highest in police stations”.

Ramana said while custodial torture and other police atrocities are problems that still persist in the Indian society and the poor bore the brunt more, “going by recent reports, even the privileged are not spared third-degree treatment”.

According to the chief justice, one of the causes of police misconduct was that when brought in for questioning or arrested, most Indians had no lawyer to represent them, leaving them vulnerable to corrupt officers.

“The lack of effective legal representation at police stations is a huge detriment to arrested or detained persons. The decisions taken in these early hours will later determine the ability of the accused to defend himself,” he said.

Ramana urged the NLSA, which works to ensure free legal advice to the poor and marginalised, to put more efforts to make the public and police aware of their rights.

He underscored that issues like human rights and dignity are sacrosanct but rued that despite the Indian Constitution guaranteeing them, there is a lack of awareness and legal representation in police stations that make those guarantees ineffective for the distressed and arrested.

As per India’s National Human Rights Commission, more than 17,000 people have reportedly died in judicial and police custody in the decade ending March 2020. Last year, 914 deaths happened in custody between January and July alone and of them, 53 took place in police custody.