Draft law recommends life in jail for custodial torture

NEW DELHI: The law commission has proposed a new bill recommending life term and fine for public servants — read police — found guilty of custodial torture.

The panel on Monday submitted the draft law, titled The Prevention of Torture Bill, 2017, as part of its 75-page report on the subject in response to a July reference from the law ministry to the commission.

It has also recommended that the government ratify a United Nations (UN) convention on “torture and other inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment”. India is a signatory to the convention, but in the absence of an anti-torture law, it is yet to ratify the convention. As many as 160 countries have ratified the convention and not doing so puts India in the company of nations with an abysmal record of custodial torture, such as Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The UPA government had drafted a bill on torture in 2010 which could not be passed.

The draft law framed by the panel, says to curb the menace of torture and to have a deterrent effect on acts of torture, stringent punishment to the perpetrators of such acts, including “punishment extending up to life imprisonment and fine”, needs to be handed out.

The report submitted, proposes amendments to key criminal laws including the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973, and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, to include provisions regarding compensation and burden of proof. It has recommended amendments to the Indian Penal Code to incorporate payment of compensation, along with fines.

It also said the Indian Evidence Act requires insertion of a new section — 114B. “This will ensure that in case a person in police custody sustains injuries, it is presumed that those injuries have been inflicted by the police, and the burden of proof shall lie on the authority concerned to explain such injury,” it recommended.

The panel said the state should take responsibility for injuries caused by its agents on citizens, and the principle of sovereign immunity cannot override rights assured by the Constitution.