HC admits PIL for compensation in illegal detentions

Chandigarh, Jan 30 (UNI) A PIL, seeking enactment of law for empowering courts to award adequate compensation in all cases of unlawful arrests and detentions, figured in the Punjab and Haryana High Court today.

It exposed the inherent weakness of provisions contained in Section 358 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1973, which empowers the Magistrates to award compensation upto Rs 100 only in case it was found that the arrest of the person had been made without sufficient grounds.

The amount of compensation is to be recovered from the person who caused the arrest and in case of non-payment, the person has to undergo an imprisonment for a month.

The petitioner, Advocate H C Arora, contended before the division bench of Chief Justice Vijendra Jain and Justice Rajive Bhalla that this provision was illusory and a mockery of the right to life and liberty guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution and pointed out that the amount of compensation did not take into consideration the element of dignity of the human being.

He pleaded that the amount of such compensation should be specified keeping in consideration the element of dignity of human beings, cost of litigation and the cost of living these days and the same should not be less than Rs 10,000. The actual amount should be the discretion of the Magistrate depending upon the facts of each case.

The petitioner submitted that the incidence of unlawful arrests and detentions ''is a serious problem'' in the country as the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) received as many as 3550 complaints of such arrests in 2002-03.

The figure would have been alarming, if complaints received by the State Human Rights Commissions were also added to the NHRC report.

Mr Arora referred to the Supreme Court judgment in D K Basu's case to point out that the only way to protect the right to life available under Article 21 was to compensate the victim or his her family members in the absence of appropriate provisions in law.

He also cited the provisions of Article 9(5) of the 'International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights, 1966' ratified by India in 1979 and pleaded that the Centre was bound to bring a legislation for empowering the criminal courts to award compensation in all types of cases of unlawful arrests and detentions.

After the hearing, the bench issued notices for April 24 to the Union Law Ministry, Punjab and Haryana governments and the UT of Chandigarh.

UNI