SC judgment today on govt appeal
The Supreme Court will deliver a verdict today on a long-pending appeal against the High Court directives on the detention of any person under suspicion and subsequent dealings with the detainees on remand.
A four-member bench of the SC's Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha on May 17 concluded the hearing of the appeal and fixed today for delivering judgement on it.
On April 7, 2003, the HC issued 15-point directives barring the government from arresting any person under the Special Powers Act after picking him/her up on suspicion.
One of the directives says an accused must be interrogated by the investigation officer in a prison room, instead of a police interrogation cell, until the cell has a glass wall or a wall with grilles on one side to make the accused visible to the lawyer or relatives.
The court also ruled that sections 54 and 167 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) dealing with the arrest on suspicion and subsequent remand respectively were not consistent with the fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution.
The HC asked the government to amend the relevant sections of the CrPC within six months from the date of the ruling.
The court also made it mandatory for a police officer to produce a person before the magistrate within 24 hours of arrest.
It said a person arrested under section 54 cannot be placed on police remand for interrogation without any nod of the metropolitan sessions judge or the district and sessions judge.
The HC verdict came upon a writ petition filed as public interest litigation (PIL) by human rights groups and individuals following the tragic death in police custody of Shamim Reza Rubel, a student of Independent University, on July 23, 1998.
On November 29 that year, the writ petition was jointly filed by BLAST, Ain o Salish Kendra, Sammilita Samajik Andolan, Sabita Rani Chakroborty, Syed Anwarul Haq, Sultanuzzaman Khan, Ummun Naser and Prof Maniruzzaman Hyat Mamud.
The government had filed the appeal with the SC on August 2 in 2003 against the HC verdict.
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