Raghavendar Askani, founder of Swatantra Center and Youth Parliament Program, in a letter to the Chief Justice of Supreme Court, Justice N V Ramana, urged to formulate a Model Code of Conduct for the Police while dealing with civilians, so that to protect their human rights, rule of law, against police brutality.
Urging to treat his letter as a Suo Motu PIL petition in the interest of the public, he recalled that how Chief Justice himself agonized during his discussion on the Indian police system, how there is the humiliation of the Rights of the citizens. It is kind of worrisome when the Chief Justice himself talks about the violations happening around. It shows how law and order is being implemented on a daily basis, he added.
He said that his letter wants to draw Chief Justice attention to the beating of people with lathis, using violence, abusive words, and how civilians are being treated by police personnel throughout the country. He deplored that Indian citizens are losing their fundamental rights due to the authoritarian culture embraced by Police and bureaucrats.
Raghavender asserted that the judicial authorities should uphold the law and protect the Human Rights, Civil Rights and Fundamental rights of citizens guaranteed by the Constitution of India. Especially Article 21 of the constitution ensures the right to life with dignity and personal liberty.
However, he deplored that during the pandemic, many people who were out to do ordinary chores, or attending hospital, or for any other purpose have been beaten blue and black. There were instances where the youth had accelerated their vehicles while seeing the police and it led to accidents and injuries. Our grievance is that police ought to treat civilians with dignity and respect, he said.
In this recalled, he mentioned that the Supreme Court time and again under article 142 of Indian Constitution has brought reforms in protecting human rights and Rule of Law such as Guidelines in D.K.Basu vs state of Bengal regarding the Rights of an accused during arrest, the procedure to be followed by the police during an arrest.
Guidelines regarding police reforms in Prakash Singh Vs Union of India reported in (2006), Reforms in CBI Vineet Narain Vs Union of India. In this letter, we would like to appeal to your lordships to take this Your Lordships, may kindly also understand, the future of pandemics and lockdowns is unpredictable.
There may or may not be lockdowns in the future. But, if there is a lockdown in the future, this PIL seeks to plead this apex court of justice to protect the people of India. As they say, a stitch in time saves nine.
It is not right to beat a person with lathi or damage their personal properties. It is below human dignity to do so. We would request the honorable court to take this case seriously for the good and welfare of all, he added.
Raghavender sent his letter to all Judges of the Supreme Court and also all Chief Justices of High Courts in the country, requesting to consider cognizance of this case as a suo moto.
He recalled that during the lockdown, migrant labor, daily labor, and common man who needed daily grocery supplies to feed the families were most affected – in the sense that they had all gone through various hurdles and tortures posed to them by the policemen.
During this time, there was a considerable rise in custodial violence too. According to a survey in the year 2019, as many as 1739 people have lost their lives in custody. There are estimates that the unofficial records or unreported records of cruelty by policemen are a bigger number than that the ones officially filed. In a foreign country, there was a custodial death report which was followed by huge agitation which led to major reforms in the police system.
He deplored that our country has been seeing custodial deaths, encounters, and cruelty by policemen on a daily basis and it is worrisome as the Governments and the general public is silent on this matter. It is time for the judiciary to take this matter into consideration and do the needful.
