K V RAJENDRAN Vs. INSPECTOR OF POLICE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" is a part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The content of Article 21 of our Constitution, read in the light of Article 19, is similarly elevating. But romance about human rights and rhetoric about constitutional mandates lose credibility if, in practice, the protectors of law and minions of the State become engines of terror and panic people into fear. We are constrained to make these observations as our conscience is in consternation when we read the facts of the case which have given rise to the order challenged before us in this petition.

(2.) I am reminded of the above observation made by Justice Krishna Iyer, while I go through the facts of this case which are so shocking.

(3.) K. V. Rajendran, a Senior Lecturer in Physics Department in the Presidency College, Chennai has filed this petition under Section 482, Cr.P.C. seeking for a direction to the respondents police to register an F.I.R. based on the complaint dated 2-9-1998 against Mr. Karunakaran Revenue Divisional Officer, Mayiladuthurai, the sixth respondent herein and other officials for having brutally tortured him and committed other illegal acts between 26-8-1998 and 28-8-1998 and for transfer of the investigation from the State Police to the Central Bureau of Investigation, the fifth respondent herein and also to order payment of compensation.