S N PHUKAN Vs. STATE OF ASSAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The prisoners, who are locked up in jail incarcerated and shut up against their will have certain basic human rights which they can assert under the. Constitution and the law, ruled their Lordships of the Supreme Court in Sunil Batra v. Sobhraj1, Hussainara Khatun Clusters of Cases,2 Nimeon Sangma v. Home Secy. Govt. of Meghalaya, and other decisions.

(2.) The State Governments are bound to obey the rule of law and uphold the tryst with the Constitution by making appropriate laws transforming the archaic and primitive regulations and substantially comply with the Constitutional mandates. It is unfortunate that the message nay, the commands of the Supreme Court are yet to be obeyed by the States in respect of the rights of the incarcerated persons. We are also told that the States and Union Territories within the jurisdiction of this court have not taken the message or the command of the Supreme Court nor have they implemented the dos and donts prescribed by their Lordships in respect of the rights of the prisoners under the Constitution and the law. A common sriking feature of the decisions alluded to is that the orders of the Supreme Court traveled beyond the immediate parties. The judicial mind was tormented to note that innumerable prisoners in our vast country belonging to the lower, illiterate bracket were suffering deprivation of liberty by unreasonable, arbitrary and unfair procedure inside the stone walls and behind the iron bars, by the jail authorities in complete disregard of the norms of justice, guaranteed by Article 21 buttressed by Article 14 and it impelled the Supreme Court to declare the laws for the entire prison population.

(3.) Two prisoners, sentenced to death, the confirmation of which is pending before this court, have complained that they have been kept in condemned can in solitary confinement. They have preferred appeals against their conviction and sentence. They ask for a direction to the jail authorities that they should not be meted out undignified, crass and inhuman treatment.