India’s Torture Culture Needs to End Now

Context: Torture as an endemic and Integral part of the police investigation has to be ended to uphold the rights of citizens with the help of people's movement.

Torture endemic in police culture:

• An integral part of police culture: prevalent all over the country. Indeed, this culture in India today is reminiscent of the brutality of the colonial police forces.
• Legal backing: The current laws facilitate torture, through the admissibility of confessions as evidence.

• E.g. The Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act & The Prevention of Terrorism Act.

• Lack of glorious jurisprudence: Supreme Court dismissed the petition to enact a torture law on grounds that the government cannot be compelled to make a law by mandamus.
• Reluctance by state governments: This is because they collectively agree that police brutality is a necessary evil to maintain law and order.

Way Forward:

• Need a people’s movement: like  #EndTortureToday to bring about the necessary legislative changes to prevent the use of torture as a tool by police. 

• Other stakeholders like the Bar, the media, civil society, and student groups have to play relevant roles in bringing about the change. 

• Stringent legal framework:  along with watertight enforcement mechanism that is aligned with the principles of UN Convention Against Torture (UNCAT) to which India is a signatory but need to ratify.
• Evidence-based investigations: Policing has to be mainstreamed to upgrade to newer technologies like DNA analysis to impact law enforcement practices.

• Adhering to Supreme Court judgments on torture by the law enforcement agency.

• Condemning the torture: In Raghbir Singh v. the State of Haryana (1980) the Court was disturbed by the recurrence of police torture resulting in a terrible scare in the minds of common citizens. 
• Torture as violative of Article 21: In Francis Coralie Mullin v. Union Territory of Delhi (1981) and Sheela Barse v. State of Maharashtra (1987), the Court condemned cruelty and torture as violative of Article 21.