Court case(1997) 1 SCC 416

D.K. Basu, Executive Chairman of Legal Aid Services, West Bengal, wrote to the Chief Justice of India in 1986 drawing attention to newspaper reports of deaths in police lock-ups and custody, and asked that custodial death be treated as a crime for which the State should pay compensation. The letter was treated as a writ petition under Article 32. A similar letter from Ashok Kumar Johri about a custodial death in Aligarh was tagged with it. The Court sought responses from all States and heard the matter over a decade.

Anand J held that custodial torture is a naked violation of human dignity and Article 21, and that Articles 21 and 22(1) are not suspended on arrest. The Court laid down eleven requirements to be followed in all cases of arrest or detention: police personnel must wear clear identification; an arrest memo attested by a witness and countersigned by the arrestee must be prepared with the time and date; a relative or friend must be informed of the arrest and place of detention; the arrestee must be told of this right; an entry must be made in the case diary; the arrestee must be medically examined on request and every 48 hours by an approved doctor; copies of all documents must go to the Magistrate; the arrestee may meet his lawyer during interrogation; and every district and State must have a police control room displaying arrests. Breach invites departmental action and contempt. Compensation under Article 32 or 226 is a recognised public law remedy for infringement of Article 21.