Should torture be banned?
Prohibiting torture is both moral and a necessity. The Union government is
seriously considering about passing a
law to prevent torture and punish its perpetrators. There can be no reason to further delay legislative measures to
eliminate all forms of torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading forms of
treatment.
India has made many requests for extradition of offenders from other
countries, and the absence of an anti-torture law may prevent these countries
from acceding to India’s requests. Conditions in India’s prisons are bad, the chronic problem being
over-crowding. Domestic law against
torture will not only be in the national interest but also have positive
implications for the protection of human rights. Custodial violence continues
to be prevalent in the country. There
should be a law for punishing public servants who inflict torture and that just compensation be paid to
victims.
Custodial torture should be eliminated so as to allow free and fair trial
of a case in any court and allowing more protection to the witnesses. But there
are many people who are against the idea of eliminating torture. According to
them, if the police's hands are tied and they can only request the agitators to
clear the way, nothing is going to happen but if they wield their lathis then
within 10 minutes the road is cleared.
There is another angle to the issue of custodial torture. We find most of
the (murder) cases failing at the court for want of proof, witness, evidence
etc etc. We often boo at the lack of seriousness of the police. If there is
further compulsion for the police to follow restraint while investigation, one
wonders how to find out the culprit. Shall we smoothly ask the accused if he
has committed the heinous murder and let him off if he says he didn't? Of
course there are limits and aberrations. Police men are also human beings. Instead
of a dressing down in public they might better be counselled within their own
department to use alternative methods to elicit facts from the accused.
To begin with we can have CCTV cameras installed in all police stations
and police vans. Custodial interrogation leading to death in multiple cases has
been in the limelight since ages and it should be done with, for common good.
Foreign nations stating 'absence of no effective system of protection from
torture in the receiving state' is a serious allegation and should be looked
into as a priority. Also, it’s not a hidden fact that the India’s prisons are
over-crowded, and if this is one of the reasons for the country’s extradition
requests failure, so isn't it something the administration should look into?
Like maybe, working on rehabilitation of prisoners, working on awareness
against crimes on a larger scale, etc. Quick and speedy justice and
implementation of more such stringent laws in all the required areas can be
taken into task.
Custodial tortures are common feature of Indian system of punishment.
Many innocents are incarcerated and tortured without any crime being committed.
Hence, the legal system should be reformed and unnecessary tortures must be
outlawed at the earliest.
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