Court caseAIR 1983 SC 1086

Rudul Sah was tried for the murder of his wife and acquitted by the Sessions Court at Muzaffarpur on 3 June 1968. He was not released; he remained in jail for more than fourteen years, until 16 October 1982, when a habeas corpus petition was filed on his behalf in the Supreme Court. The State explained that he had been detained as a person of unsound mind under an order of the jail authorities, but a medical report of 1977 had already certified him sane. The petitioner asked for his release, rehabilitation, medical treatment and compensation for the years of illegal detention.

Chandrachud CJ held that the detention after acquittal was "wholly unjustified" and that Article 21 would be "denuded of its significant content" if the Court's power were limited to ordering release. "The right to compensation is some palliative for the unlawful acts of instrumentalities which act in the name of public interest and which present for their protection the powers of the State as a shield." Refusing compensation would be "doing mere lip-service" to the fundamental right. The Court ordered the State of Bihar to pay Rs 30,000 within two weeks, in addition to Rs 5,000 already paid, as an interim measure without prejudice to a suit for damages, which the petitioner remained free to bring.