Prisoners Right in India

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PRISONERS’ RIGHTS IN INDIA: AN ANALYSIS OF LEGAL FRAME WORK
Article · November 2018
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Vol. 6; No. 2 ISSN: 0976-3570
Vol. 6 No. 2 September 2015 ISSN: 0976-3570
INDIAN JOURNAL OF LAW AND JUSTICE
ENLIGHTENMENT TO PERFECTION
DEPARTMENT OF LAW
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH BENGAL
DARJEELING, WEST BENGAL, INDIA
Vol. 6; No. 2 ISSN: 0976-3570
INDIAN JOURNAL OF LAW AND JUSTICE
Cite This Volume as IJLJ (2015)

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PRISONERS’ RIGHTS IN INDIA: AN ANALYSIS
OF LEGAL FRAME WORK
Anita Yadav1
I. Introduction
“A convict is entitled to precious right guaranteed by Article 21."2
The basic problem in India with reference to the prison
administration resulting into various kinds of human rights issue and
challenges, for instance rights related to health care, sanitation, food,
custodial torture, deaths etc. In this line there is a need to reform the entire
criminal Justice system because prison is one of the vital parts of the
criminal justice system. Hence, provisions related to arrest, bail,
adjournment of the cases needs to revise with human rights perspective of
the prisoners.
Laws in India have elaborate provisions of safeguarding the rights of
accused in order to assure him a just, fair and impartial trial. However, these
rights are not available to the accused belonging to poverty class and the
same are being availed only by those belonging to elite class of the society,
who have got the means to exploit those rights. Because of this reason
accused person from the poverty class are not able to get the justice and on
the other hand people possessing the means are able to get the clutches of
law and they hold the key to unlock the door of the justice 3 . Moreover,
Social defence is the criminological foundation of punishment. The trial
judge has confused between correctional approach to prison treatment and
nominal punishment verging on decriminalization of serious social4
In this background that paper highlights the rights of the prisoners,
constitutional rights, and their human rights. It provides numerous
judgments of the Supreme Court affecting the rights of the prisoners.
1
Research Associate and Ph.D Scholar at National Law School of India
University, Bangalore. Ex-Job Assistant Professor at Christ University, School
of Law, Bangalore, Email: anita.satyam@gmail.com, PH: 09742865247
2
Sunil Batra vs Delhi Administration, 1980 AIR 1579 available at
http://www.manupatrafast.in/pers/Personalized.aspx (last visited on February 23,
2014).
3
Dr. Ashutosh, Rights of the accused, Page VII, 2nd ed. Universal Law Publishing
house, 2013.
4
Available at http://www.manupatrafast.in/pers/Personalized.aspx (last visited on
February 24, 2014).
131
II. Human Rights of the Prisoners
The issue of human rights and prisoners arouses great emotion. Why
should someone who has been accused of or convicted of criminal offences
be entitled to human rights at all? Before coming to this question, it is
pertinent to understand the concept of the human rights itself.
The concept of the human rights is not a new phenomenon. Human
right is a concept that has been constantly evolving throughout human
history the origin of which, we can trace back from the evolution of the
natural law. In which the concept of human rights can be located in the
notion of “natural rights” that was propounded in the seventeenth century by
philosopher John Locke who urged that certain rights are “natural” to
individuals as human beings, having existed even in the state of nature
before the development of the societies and emergence of the state.5
One of the first examples of a codification of laws that contain
references to individual rights is the tablet of Hammurabi. The tablet was
created by the Sumerian king Hammurabi about 4000 years ago (1792-1750
BCE). This is one of the exemplary examples for the protection of the
human rights. This kind of precedent and legally binding document protects
the people from arbitrary prosecution and punishment.6
The idea of the setting out in writing the rights of the individuals
with respect to the governing authority can be trace back from the dates back
to the British Magna Carta – the great charter of 1215- which, was first time,
propounded the rule of the law and laid the foundation of the fundamental
liberties then came to the British Bill of Rights, the American Declaration of
Independence, French Declaration of the Rights of Man (1789) and of the
Citizen and American Bills of Rights. The UN charter was yet another
landmark document in this field. The adoption of the universal declaration of
human rights in 1948 was also a momentous event in the promotion and
protection of human rights everywhere. Since then, the basic premise that
human rights and fundamental freedom are the birthrights of all human
being has generally been accepted and expressed in many international
instruments.7
The first documentary use of the expression “Human Rights” could
be seen in the charter of the United Nation adopted on 25th June, 1945.
Which gain momentum since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights in 1948, and 10 December 1948 is landmark in the history
5
Introduction of the Human Rights, An overview including the issues of Gender
Justice, Environmental and consumer Law, South Asian Human Rights
Documentation Centre, Oxford University Press, 2010.
6
Faisal, Historical Development of Human Rights, available at Juris Online.
7
S. Gopalan, India and the Human Rights, 3, Lok Sabha Secretariat New Delhi.
132
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PRISONERS’ RIGHTS IN INDIA: AN ANALYSIS OF LEGAL FRAME WORK

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