HIGHEST THREAT TO BODILY INTEGRITY IS IN CUSTODY: CJI

NEW DELHI: Underlining the importance of human rights and bodily integrity, Chief Justice of India (CJI) NV Ramana on Sunday lamented that police stations pose the “highest threat” to citizens’ rights.

“The threat to human rights and bodily integrity is the highest in police stations...Going by recent reports, even the privileged are not spared third-degree treatment,” said the CJI as he spoke at the release of NLSA’s legal services app and vision statement in New Delhi.

Despite constitutional declarations and guarantees, Justice Ramana rued, lack of effective legal representation at the police stations is a huge detriment to arrested people. “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,” said the CJI while imploring the NALSA to actively carry out nationwide sensitisation of police officers.

Justice Ramana further emphasised that access to justice is an unending mission which will succeed only if judiciary can obviate obstacles like lengthy, painstaking, and expensive formal justice processes.

“If, as an institution, the judiciary wants to garner the faith of the citizens, we have to make everyone feel assured that we exist for them. For the longest time, the vulnerable population has lived outside the system of justice,” he asserted.

According to the CJI, it is imperative to bridge the gap of accessibility to justice between the highly privileged and the most vulnerable. He said the digital divide has not helped the cause of easy access to justice. Rural and remote areas suffer from lack of connectivity.