Supreme Court seeks feedback on law against custodial violence
The Supreme Court of India on Tuesday (22 Jan 2019) gave States’ chief secretaries three weeks time to give a feedback on the Centre’s draft for law to prevent custodial torture and inhuman treatment.
A Bench led by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi was informed by Attorney-General K.K. Venugopal that the Central government has circulated the draft bill to the States. Mr. Venugopal submitted that so far only seven States have given their feedback.
“Having heard the Attorney General on behalf of Union of India, we direct the chief secretaries of all State governments to send their feedback within three weeks from today, ” the court directed.
The Bench observed that the chief secretaries would have to appear in person before it on February 13 in case of a failure to provide feedback.
The petition filed by former Union Law Minister Ashwini Kumar in his personal capacity argued that India, which had signed the UN Convention against Torture way back in 1997, has still not ratified the Convention which defines torture as a criminal offence.
Mr. Ashwini Kumar submitted that no steps have been taken to implement the Prevention and Torture Bill 2010 even six years after it was passed by the Lok Sabha on May 6, 2010 and recommended by a Select Committee of the Rajya Sabha of which he had been Chairman.
He said the Centre has avoided an independent legislation on torture, saying that some States were not in favour of such a law and the Indian Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code were more than sufficient.
News courtesy: The Hindu.
