In India, use of handcuffs by police and jail staff is prohibited except when authorized by a court. This is as per the directions of the Supreme Court.
Long back, in the case of Sunil Batra v. Delhi Admn., (1978) 4 SCC 494, the Supreme Court had held that fetters, especially bar fetters, shall be shunned as violative of human dignity, within and without prisons. The indiscriminate resort to handcuffs when accused persons are taken to and from court and the expedient of forcing irons on prison inmates are illegal and shall be stopped forthwith save in a small category of cases. Reckless handcuffing and chaining in public degrades, puts to shame finer sensibilities and is a slur on our culture.
Subsequently, in the case of Prem Shankar Shukla v. Delhi Admn., (1980) 3 SCC 526, the Supreme Court further declared that to handcuff is to hoop harshly and to punish humiliatingly. It is necessarily implicit in Articles 14 and 19 that when there is no compulsive need to fetter a persons’ limbs, it is sadistic, capricious, despotic and demoralising to humble a man by manacling him. The minimal freedom of movement, which even a detainee is entitled to under Article 19, cannot be cut down by application of handcuffs.
The Court further held that to be consistent with Articles 14 and 19 handcuffs must be the last refuge as there are other ways for ensuring security. No prisoner shall be handcuffed or fettered routinely or merely for the convenience of the custodian or escort. Functional compulsions of security must reach that dismal degree where no alternative will work except manacles. There must be material, sufficiently stringent, to satisfy a reasonable mind that there is clear and present danger of escape of the prisoner who is being transported by breaking out of the police control and further that by adding to the escort party or other strategy, he cannot be kept under control. The onus of proof in this regard is on him who puts the person under irons.
Later, in the case of Citizens for Democracy v. State of Assam, (1995) 3 SCC 743 : AIR 1996 SC 2193, the Supreme Court issued the following directions for use (or rather non-use) of handcuffs:
“We declare, direct and lay down as a rule that handcuffs or other fetters shall not be forced on a prisoner — convicted or undertrial — while lodged in a jail anywhere in the country or while transporting or in transit from one jail to another or from jail to court and back. The police and the jail authorities, on their own, shall have no authority to direct the handcuffing of any inmate of a jail in the country or during transport from one jail to another or from jail to court and back.
Where the police or the jail authorities have well-grounded basis for drawing a strong inference that a particular prisoner is likely to jump jail or break out of the custody then the said prisoner be produced before the Magistrate concerned and a prayer for permission to handcuff the prisoner be made before the said Magistrate. Save in rare cases of concrete proof regarding proneness of the prisoner to violence, his tendency to escape, he being so dangerous/desperate and the finding that no other practical way of forbidding escape is available, the Magistrate may grant permission to handcuff the prisoner.
In all the cases where a person arrested by police, is produced before the Magistrate and remand — judicial or non-judicial — is given by the Magistrate the person concerned shall not be handcuffed unless special orders in that respect are obtained from the Magistrate at the time of the grant of the remand.
When the police arrests a person in execution of a warrant of arrest obtained from a Magistrate, the person so arrested shall not be handcuffed unless the police has also obtained orders from the Magistrate for the handcuffing of the person to be so arrested.
Where a person is arrested by the police without warrant the police officer concerned may if he is satisfied, on the basis of the guidelines given by us in para above, that it is necessary to handcuff such a person, he may do so till the time he is taken to the police station and thereafter his production before the Magistrate. Further use of fetters thereafter can only be under the orders of the Magistrate as already indicated by us.”
In view of aforesaid directions of the Supreme Court, handcuffs are not used by police in India on the persons arrested. This legal position applies not only to undertrial persons in custody, but also to convicted prisoners.
This is one arena, wherein Indian judiciary has gone much ahead of western democracies, since in some western countries use of handcuffs is quite common still.
Very nice and informative article. Thank you.