Two Principal Challenges A few years ago, Justice Lahoti, a former Chief Justice of India, sent a letter to the then Chief Justice highlighting the extremely sorry state of prisoners’ living conditions. The issues highlighted by Justice Lahoti included those of overcrowding and custodial deaths. After hearing all parties, the Supreme Court gave directions which led to some progress, but the problem of overcrowding persists. There are still so many prisons in the country with more than 150 per cent capacity and, in some cases, more than 200 per cent. In this context, it is essential to acknowledge that even the most hardened criminals have the right to live with dignity and, as pointed out by the Supreme Court, while some fundamental rights are restricted and some are not available to prisoners, they have the basic right to life of dignity. Overcrowding prohibits them from the exercise of this right. Custodial deaths in prisons are by the dozen. There are several reasons for this, including natural causes, but a large number of deaths are due to suicides caused by depression, intimidation and browbeating by fellow prisoners, lack of adequate medical care and attention and other factors. It is in this context also that prison reforms are essential. Rights of Under-trial Prisoners It is tragic that the human rights of under-trial prisoners, that is, those who have not yet been convicted of an offence but are only accused or are suspects, are routinely trampled upon. Review committees for under-trial prisoners are said to be operational in every district of the country. They are tasked with scrutinizing the case of every under- trial prisoner so that wherever possible, they can be released. I have serious reservations about their efficacy and the effectiveness of their deliberations. Their casual approach to the task at hand makes prison reform that much more difficult. Women Prisoners Among the more vulnerable prisoners are women prisoners, many of whom perforce bring their children to prison to take care of them. These children have not committed any offence except perhaps the offence of being born to a woman now in custody, but they too have to suffer incarceration, at least for a few years, if not more. Do these women and children not have any human rights? Are we not expected to show some concern for them as well?
چکیده فارسی
دو چالش اصلی چند سال پیش، قاضی لاهوتی، رئیس سابق دادگستری هند، نامه ای به رئیس دادگستری وقت ارسال کرد که در آن وضعیت بسیار تاسف بار شرایط زندگی زندانیان را برجسته کرد. موضوعاتی که قاضی لاهوتی بر آن تاکید کرد شامل مواردی از ازدحام بیش از حد و مرگ در حبس بود. پس از استماع همه طرف ها، دیوان عالی دستوراتی را ارائه کرد که منجر به پیشرفت هایی شد، اما مشکل ازدحام بیش از حد همچنان ادامه دارد. هنوز تعداد زیادی زندان در کشور با ظرفیت بیش از 150 درصد و در برخی موارد بیش از 200 درصد وجود دارد. در این زمینه، اذعان به این نکته ضروری است که حتی سرسخت‌ترین جنایتکاران نیز حق دارند با عزت زندگی کنند و همانطور که توسط دیوان عالی کشور اشاره شده است، در حالی که برخی از حقوق اساسی محدود شده و برخی در دسترس زندانیان نیستند، از حقوق اولیه برخوردارند. حق زندگی با عزت ازدحام بیش از حد آنها را از استفاده از این حق منع می کند. مرگ و میر حبس در زندان ها به ده ها نفر می رسد. دلایل متعددی برای این امر وجود دارد، از جمله علل طبیعی، اما تعداد زیادی از مرگ و میرها به دلیل خودکشی های ناشی از افسردگی، ارعاب و کتک زدن هم زندانیان، عدم مراقبت و توجه کافی پزشکی و عوامل دیگر است. در این زمینه است که اصلاحات زندان نیز ضروری است. حقوق زندانیان تحت محاکمه غم انگیز است که حقوق بشر زندانیان تحت محاکمه، یعنی کسانی که هنوز به جرمی محکوم نشده اند اما فقط متهم هستند یا مظنون هستند، به طور معمول پایمال می شود. گفته می شود که کمیته های بازبینی برای زندانیان تحت محاکمه در همه مناطق کشور فعال هستند. آنها وظیفه دارند پرونده هر زندانی تحت محاکمه را مورد بررسی قرار دهند تا در صورت امکان، آنها را آزاد کنند. من در مورد اثربخشی آنها و اثربخشی مشورت آنها تردیدهای جدی دارم. رویکرد گاه به گاه آنها نسبت به کار در دست انجام اصلاحات زندان را بسیار دشوارتر می کند. زنان زندانی در میان زندانیان آسیب پذیرتر، زنان زندانی هستند که بسیاری از آنها فرزندان خود را به زور به زندان می آورند تا از آنها مراقبت کنند. این کودکان هیچ جرمی مرتکب نشده اند، به جز جرم تولد از زنی که اکنون در حبس است، اما آنها نیز باید حداقل برای چند سال، اگر نه بیشتر، از حبس رنج ببرند. آیا این زنان و کودکان هیچ حقوق انسانی ندارند؟ آیا انتظار نمی رود که نسبت به آنها نیز نگرانی نشان دهیم؟
ادامه ...
بستن ...
justification for the custodial killing of Muslims of Hashimpura. Stoically carrying the burden of his irreparable loss, he gave unstinting support to this struggle for justice. The imperative of fair trial demanded that the case be transferred to Delhi. But it also meant that the witnesses and the victim community had to find the time and resources to travel to Delhi repeatedly to attend multiple court hearings at the Tis Hazari court. For these fruit vendors, daily wage earners, labourers and widows, each trip meant losing a day’s wages. Yet, despite their trauma, fear, poverty and exhaustion, they pursued the trial for thirty-one long years. It used to take about three hours to travel from Hashimpura to Delhi. I recall one of the early hearings when the families of the victims came to the Tis Hazari court in Delhi. Most of them were widowed women – wives and mothers of the men who had been killed. Seeing this motley group of a dozen odd burkha-clad women accompanied by Muslim men wearing skull caps inside the court room, a lawyer said to the judge, ‘I think this crowd should be searched.’ Thus ‘attending court while Muslim’, even as victims, was enough to provoke alarm and anxiety. Fortunately, the judge did not perceive women in burqas and men in skullcaps as a security threat. In this arduous and long legal struggle, the victims’ families were represented in court by Sr Advocate Rebecca M. John and me. A small yet committed team of young lawyers – Vishal Gosain, Harsh Bora and Ratna Appnender – followed the trial tenaciously, with advocates Bhavook Chauhan, Soutik Banerjee and Megha Bahl joining the legal team at the appellate stage. Friends and colleagues advised me that it was pointless to fight this case, which they dubbed ‘a lost cause’. Despite their sage advice, our commitment to the victim families and our admiration for their courage and tenacity gave us the strength we needed to pursue the case. As the trial crawled on, the victims were alarmed at the indifference and apathy of the prosecution, and as the Hashimpura massacre clocked twenty years, they demanded that the state appoint a Special Public Prosecutor, following which Sr Advocate Satish Tamta was appointed to conduct the trial. Evidence When a case is tried before a criminal court, it stands or falls on the evidence presented by the prosecution which, as the law mandates, must establish the guilt beyond reasonable doubt. Was the Hashimpura massacre of over forty Muslim men a whodunnit? A macabre crime that left bloodstains but no trail? The primary evidence relied upon by the prosecution were the five young men who had fortuitously survived to recount the horror. The shooting left them scarred and wounded, with two of them permanently disabled by bullet injuries. These five men came forward and testified as star witnesses for the prosecution before the Delhi Trial Court. Eyewitness Accounts The five survivors were young men, aged between eighteen and twenty-one years at the time of the crime. Twenty years later, they stepped into the witness box to recount and relive the chilling details of the crime. The first Prosecuting Witness, Zulfiqar Nasir, (PW 1) stated: On 22.5.1987, it was Zumma (Friday), I was reciting Namaz in the evening at about 6 p.m. on the roof of my house when few military persons came to my house. The said military persons took myself, my father, my two uncles (chachas) and my grandfather outside our house in the street on the road. The said military persons made us sit on the said road where already about 400–500 persons were sitting. Persons of our mohalla thus collected were sitting on both the sides of the road ... I saw a big force of military and PAC deployed there. Seven or eight trucks belonging to military and PAC were also parked there. PAC persons divided the mohalla people into two groups. One group comprised elderly people and children whereas the second group was of young persons. They then ordered the group of young persons to sit in their trucks. PAC as well as the army people both took away the trucks after loading young persons from that place. My both chachas and my father were in the group of young persons who were taken away by PAC and military. I do not know as to where they were taken away. To the group of elderly people and the children left at the spot, PAC officials gave directions to maintain peace and go to their respective houses. Before they could leave for their houses, PAC officials segregated the able- bodied elderly persons and boys of my age. This way about 40–45 people were scrutinized and made to sit in the only truck left at the spot on which ‘PAC’ was written. I was in the said group of 40–45 people in the said truck. It was about 8 p.m. The said truck was yellow in colour and it bore the writing in white paint ‘PAC’. PAC officials, after making us sit in the truck, gave us directions to keep our heads downwards and not to raise our head. There were 18–20 officials of PAC in the truck at that time. The PAC officials had surrounded us in the truck in such a manner that we were not visible to anyone outside
ادامه ...
بستن ...
