The Union Ministry of Home Affairs on September 15th informed the Lok Sabha that it has no plans to being a legislation on Custodial Torture and Violence.
G. Kishan Reddy, Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs, informed the House that the Indian Penal Code provides punishment for such offences and it has no plans to bring in a separate legislation.
It is pertinent to note that the Supreme Court has decided to revive the DK Basu Case to consider the requests for issuance of fresh guidelines to curb custodial violence, in the backdrop of increasing trend of normalising of custodial deaths. One such hideous incident that shook the grounds of custodial death happened in Tamil Nadu when the father-son duo of Jayaraj and Bennix were beaten to death.
Last year, the Top Court had dismissed the plea of Former Law Minister and Senior Advocate Dr. Ashwini Kumar, seeking a direction to Central Government to enact a stand-alone comprehensive legislation against custodial torture.
He further informed the House that “Police” and “Public Order” are State Subjects under the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India and it is primarily the responsibility of the State Governments to ensure compliance of law and protect life and property of people.
