New Delhi: Custodial death is a crime and such incidents indicate the "apparent disdain" of the State to the life and liberty of prisoners, the Supreme Court said on Friday.
Observing that there was no let up in the cases of custodial deaths, the apex court asserted that there must be a genuine desire to ensure that guarantee to a life of dignity is provided even in prisons, otherwise the fundamental right to life and personal liberty would remain a "dead letter".
If the fundamental right to life and liberty was to be given its true meaning, the Centre and the state governments must accept the reality and not proceed on the basis that prisoners could be treated as "chattel", it said. Passing a slew of directions over unnatural deaths and prison reforms across India, a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta said that despite several cases and repeated decisions by the apex court and high courts, there seems to be no let up in custodial deaths. "This is not a sad but a tragic state of affairs indicating the apparent disdain of the state to the life and liberty of individuals, particularly those in custody," the bench said in a 43-page order.