Handcuffing -Guidelines of the Supreme Court:
As a police officer is vested with power to restrain a person by handcuffing him, there is simultaneous restraint by the law on the police officer as to the exercise of the power. The handcuffs should not be used in routine manner. The minimum freedom of movement which even an under trial prisoner is entitled to under Article 19 of the Constitution, cannot be cut down cruelly by application of handcuffs or other hoops. [Sunil Batra v. Delhi Administration -AIR 1978 SC 1675].
Involvement of the prisoner in a score of criminal cases is no ground for handcuffing. Nor can a person be handcuffed only because he is charged with a grave offence. It cannot be used only for the convenience of the escort party. The rules, regulations and manuals of various states authorising the police to use handcuffs have been struck down as violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India. [Prem Shankar Shukla v. Delhi Administration -AIR 1980 SC 1535].
Use of Handcuffs -conditions for: The handcuffs can be used by the escorting police party if the prisoner is dangerous and desperate, or if the prisoner is likely to break out of custody or play the vanishing trick. The escorting party must form the opinion on the basis of antecedents of the prisoner. [Prem Shankar Shukla v. Delhi Administration -AIR 1980 SC 1535]. The escorting authority should record contemporaneously the reasons for handcuffing an under trial prisoner even in extreme cases and intimate the court, so that the court may consider the circumstances and issue necessary directions to the escort party. [Sunil Gupta v. State of M.P. -1990 SCC (Cr.) -440].
