Court case(1978) 4 SCC 494

Sunil Batra, sentenced to death and lodged in Tihar jail, was kept in solitary confinement under section 30(2) of the Prisons Act, 1894 on the ground that he was "under sentence of death", although his appeal was pending. Charles Sobraj, an undertrial in the same jail, was kept in bar fetters for months under section 56. Both petitioned under Article 32 against the harsh treatment and challenged the two provisions as violating Articles 14, 19 and 21.

The Constitution Bench read both provisions down rather than strike them. A convict is "under sentence of death" only when the sentence has become final and executable, after appeals and mercy petitions; until then section 30(2) permits only such segregation as is needed to keep him safe, not solitary confinement, which is itself a punishment a court alone can impose under section 73 IPC. Bar fetters under section 56 may be used only in exceptional circumstances, for the shortest time, with reasons recorded and the prisoner heard, and subject to review. Krishna Iyer J declared that a prisoner retains all fundamental rights except those necessarily lost by incarceration, and that Article 21, after Maneka Gandhi, requires fair and humane treatment inside jails, which the courts will enforce.