MANTOO MAJUMDAR Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) No constitution nor Code nor Court can interdict illegal incarceration where conscientized agencies of the law at the grass-roots level are absent. Such is the only explanation for the lawless lot of the two prisoners who are petitioners before us. These two humans sojourning for long years in some jail or other in Bihar since 1972 found their personal liberty subverted by the police, prison officials and the magistracy that they wrote letters to the Hon'ble Chief Justice in reparation. The above habeas corpus petition is a legal incarnation of those letters. Sensitized by the prima facie hideous facts disclosed the court directed a rule to issue. Somehow, despite several adjournments the State did not even furnish the basic facts about the imprisonment of the petitioners, the offences for which they were kept in judicial custody, for how long and at what stage were the proceedings and the like. This gross indifference of the Bihar State in regard to citizens deprived of their liberty for indefinite and prolonged spells is an unconscionable aspect of that State's unconcern for human rights. Indeed, counsel for the State did his level best to get relevant information. Being at the end of our patience and finding a helpless counsel, we had to pass an order in the following terms :

(2.) When the directive of the court went beyond mere censorious observations into hint at action against the defaulting officials, the scene began to change and at the hearing on February 25, 1980, the Superintendent of the Jail and the District Magistrate who were in a sense vicariously responsible for the custodial condition of the petitioners appeared in person and prayed to be excused for the default or delay in furnishing vital information about those unfree individuals. Fuller facts have been furnished by the Superintendent, Central Jail, sufficient to enable us to discover the incontestable illegality of the detention and to direct the release on bail of the petitioners.

(3.) Law is what law does and not what law writes in the books beyond the reach of those behind bars. In this perspective, Art. 21 of the Constitution and S. 167 (2) of the Cr. P. C., are dead letter for each petitioner, Art. 21 guarantees personal liberty in these terms :-