Supreme court justifying police beating of witnesses

Text of the Special Mention was treated as laid on the Table of the House by order of the Honble Deputy Chairman

Shri Ram Jethmalani (maharashtra) : I seek permission to raise a matter of urgent public importance arising out of judgement of the Hon''ble Supreme Court which has inter alia held that it is justifiable for police to beat up witnesses to extract what the police regard as truth and that such evidence is admissible and does not suffer any taint.

       This judgement has caused international embarrassment in Law Schools of India.  People rightly ask: "does Indian Law allow police officers to beat witnesses and does it allow the court to act on such tainted evidence".  One has to hang his head in shame. The judgement in effect amounts to a licence to the police to practice third degree and convert police stations into torture chambers.  This requires to be urgently addressed either by legislation or by judicial action.  By letter dated 13-5-2005 I suggested a reference to the Supreme Court under Article 143 of the Constitution relating to the above.

       In all humility I submit that the judgement poses a continuing threat to the reputation of our judicial system and the matter does not admit of delay.  If the Government does not seek the advisory opinion of the Supreme Court in the first instance an authoritative statement should be made that Legislation will be urgently introduced to reverse the law as currently laid down.                                     (ends)