COURT ON ITS OWN MOTION Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Albert Schweitzer, accentuating on Glory of Life had uttered "reverence for life offers me my fundamental principle on morality". One may understand the aforesaid utterance to have an individualistic perception of a great personality but understood in the complete sense, it really denotes, in its essentiality, and connotes, in its very macrocosm, the basic perception of a thinker about the respect life commands. It is easy to think that life is a spark of light or, for that matter, a "brief candle" but everyone loves the said brief candle and would not like it to be extinguished by the cruel hand of others. Not for nothing, it has been said "the earth belongs to the living, not to the dead". Hence, some call life a bliss, some name it a feeling of ecstasy and none wants that it should be nasalized or fossilized. On one hand, no one has the right to take the life of another and on the other, the authorities who are in charge of persons who have been found guilty in law cannot allow things to happen as a consequence of which the man in custody meets his end at the hands of others because of severe negligence or callousness.

(2.) We have commenced with the aforesaid prefatory note as in the case at hand, we are required to deal with the factual scenario when a death occurs in the jail premises whereby a life convict meets his end because of assault by inmates for whatever reason, how it should be viewed in the public law remedy and what the writ court should do while exercising jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India.

(3.) The factual score which has been gradually uncurtained in this writ petition initiated on the basis of a letter is that one Sunder, who was in judicial custody in Tihar Jail, was beaten to death. This Court on earlier occasion had called for a report from the Metropolitan Magistrate who conducted an inquiry. After taking appropriate steps, a final report of inquest proceedings has been submitted by the Metropolitan Magistrate, Mahila Court, West Delhi. We think it apt to reproduce the said report in entirety: