Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 73
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Code Context


        trigger_error($message, E_USER_DEPRECATED);

    }
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 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php.'
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deprecationWarning - CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311
Cake\Http\ServerRequest::offsetGet() - CORE/src/Http/ServerRequest.php, line 2421
App\Controller\ArtileDetailController::printArticle() - APP/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line 73
Cake\Controller\Controller::invokeAction() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 610
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 120
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
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Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
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Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51
Cake\Http\Server::run() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 98

Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 74
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Code Context


        trigger_error($message, E_USER_DEPRECATED);

    }
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 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php.'
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deprecationWarning - CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311
Cake\Http\ServerRequest::offsetGet() - CORE/src/Http/ServerRequest.php, line 2421
App\Controller\ArtileDetailController::printArticle() - APP/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line 74
Cake\Controller\Controller::invokeAction() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 610
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 120
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51
Cake\Http\Server::run() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 98

Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Code Context
            if (Configure::read('debug')) {

                trigger_error($message, E_USER_WARNING);

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    <link rel="canonical" href="https://im4change.in/<pre class="cake-error"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr680455f9ec17d-trace').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr680455f9ec17d-trace').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none');"><b>Notice</b> (8)</a>: Undefined variable: urlPrefix [<b>APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp</b>, line <b>8</b>]<div id="cakeErr680455f9ec17d-trace" class="cake-stack-trace" style="display: none;"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr680455f9ec17d-code').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr680455f9ec17d-code').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Code</a> <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr680455f9ec17d-context').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr680455f9ec17d-context').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Context</a><pre id="cakeErr680455f9ec17d-code" class="cake-code-dump" style="display: none;"><code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB"></span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">head</span><span style="color: #007700">&gt;
</span></span></code>
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&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Prevention of Torture Bill fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse to take notice&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;A court can entertain a complaint under the proposed law only if it is made within six months of the date of the offence&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The right against &lt;a href=&quot;../articles.php?articleId=56&amp;amp;pgno=2&quot;&gt;torture&lt;/a&gt;, quite uniquely, admits to no exceptions whatsoever under international and comparative law. In practice, however, it remains one of the most frequently violated rights. The Minister of State for Home recently introduced the Prevention of Torture Bill in Lok Sabha, in order &amp;ldquo;to provide punishment for torture inflicted by public servants&amp;rdquo;. The main intention behind the Bill is to enable India to ratify the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. With 146 ratifications in place, India&#039;s continued failure to do so is a source of deep embarrassment and raises doubts over her claims to be a liberal democracy. Indeed, the chief motivation behind the Bill is to polish India&#039;s international image rather than to protect her citizens from torture.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Clause 3 of the Bill defines &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo; as an intentional act which causes &amp;ldquo;grievous hurt&amp;rdquo; or &amp;ldquo;danger to life, limb or health&amp;rdquo;. Grievous hurt is defined under Section 320 of the Indian Penal Code to include extremely serious injuries such as permanent loss of eye or ear, emasculation, bone fractures, or hurt which causes severe and debilitating pain for twenty days or more. In other words, a very high threshold has been set for an act to qualify as &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo;.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Even the &amp;ldquo;danger to (mental or physical) health&amp;rdquo; provision is not very helpful. The term &amp;ldquo;danger&amp;rdquo; implies a certain level of seriousness, while mental and physical &amp;ldquo;health&amp;rdquo; has frequently been interpreted by courts in civil cases to only include medically recognised illnesses. Given the general rule that criminal laws are interpreted strictly, courts are likely to err on the side of the accused and demand a high threshold for &amp;ldquo;danger to health&amp;rdquo;. The &amp;ldquo;danger to health&amp;rdquo; standard must also be contrasted with the definition of &amp;ldquo;hurt&amp;rdquo; in the Indian Penal Code, which simply includes &amp;ldquo;bodily pain&amp;rdquo;. Similarly, Article 1(1) of the U.N. Convention defines &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo; as the intentional infliction of &amp;ldquo;severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental&amp;rdquo;.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Most reasonable people would agree with the Convention that torture must be understood primarily in terms of the pain that it inflicts, rather than any long-term impact. But, the Bill is likely to be interpreted so that acts that cause severe pain without causing any lasting damage to a person&#039;s health may not amount to torture. Thus, many cases of water-boarding, sexual assault, deprivation of food, water or sleep, whipping, rubbing chillies on sensitive body parts and other such barbaric acts readily condemned by most reasonable people may not amount to &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo; under the proposed Bill. As if this definitional ambiguity was not bad enough, the Bill is cynically silent on &amp;ldquo;other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment&amp;rdquo;, whose prohibition is an essential requirement under the U.N. Convention.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;To make matters worse, Clause 4 of the Bill lays down that even if an act qualifies as &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo;, it will be punishable only if it was committed &amp;ldquo;for the purpose of extorting ... any confession or any information which may lead to the detection of an offence...; and on the ground of [a person&#039;s] religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste or community or any other ground...&amp;rdquo;. So, if a police officer breaks a few bones in order to intimidate a person, to extort money, to &amp;ldquo;teach her a lesson&amp;rdquo;, or for no reason whatsoever, he cannot be punished under this bizarre Bill. Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse to take notice.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;But even if this was indeed the case, there is yet another condition to satisfy &amp;mdash; the victim must, in addition, show that the torture was based on some form of discrimination. It is true that many people are routinely tortured in India merely for being Dalit, Muslim, tribal or hijra. But the correct response is the formula in the U.N. Convention, which prohibits torture &amp;ldquo;for any reason based on discrimination of any kind&amp;rdquo; as an independent, rather than an additional, ingredient of torture. Thus, the Bill only punishes those acts of torture which result in a very serious injury, were motivated by a desire to extract a confession or information, and were discriminatory. Nothing less would suffice.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The next hurdle in this obstacle race is Clause 5, which requires that a court can entertain a complaint only if it is made within six months of the date of the offence. Victims of torture tend to be vulnerable people, who often need a lot of time to overcome the physical and psychological trauma, find support, organise resources and gather courage to make the complaint. As a general rule, criminal laws tend to prescribe no time limits whatsoever, let alone one as short as six months.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Finally, Clause 6 prohibits a court from taking cognisance of a complaint without the ever-elusive prior sanction to prosecute from the government. The Bill might as well be headed &amp;ldquo;Impunity for Torturers Bill&amp;rdquo;, for it is not meant to bring any torturer to book. It is designed to save our government from criticism in the international community and preserve the facade of a rights-respecting liberal democracy. In reality, it fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens. Rudyard Kipling said that the colonial government gave its subjects:&lt;/font&gt;
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&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;A time to squabble in court &amp;hellip;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Jails &amp;mdash; and Police to fight,&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Justice &amp;mdash; at length of days,&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;And Right &amp;mdash; and Might in the Right.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;This may well be true of democratic India.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;(The writer is a Fellow in Law, Christ Church, Oxford.)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
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The Prevention of Torture Bill fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens.&amp;nbsp; 


Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;font &gt;&lt;em&gt;The Prevention of Torture Bill fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;&lt;em&gt;Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse to take notice&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;&lt;em&gt;A court can entertain a complaint under the proposed law only if it is made within six months of the date of the offence&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The right against &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/articles.php?articleId=56&amp;amp;pgno=2&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/articles.php?articleId=56&amp;amp;pgno=2&quot;&gt;torture&lt;/a&gt;, quite uniquely, admits to no exceptions whatsoever under international and comparative law. In practice, however, it remains one of the most frequently violated rights. The Minister of State for Home recently introduced the Prevention of Torture Bill in Lok Sabha, in order &amp;ldquo;to provide punishment for torture inflicted by public servants&amp;rdquo;. The main intention behind the Bill is to enable India to ratify the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. With 146 ratifications in place, India&#039;s continued failure to do so is a source of deep embarrassment and raises doubts over her claims to be a liberal democracy. Indeed, the chief motivation behind the Bill is to polish India&#039;s international image rather than to protect her citizens from torture.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Clause 3 of the Bill defines &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo; as an intentional act which causes &amp;ldquo;grievous hurt&amp;rdquo; or &amp;ldquo;danger to life, limb or health&amp;rdquo;. Grievous hurt is defined under Section 320 of the Indian Penal Code to include extremely serious injuries such as permanent loss of eye or ear, emasculation, bone fractures, or hurt which causes severe and debilitating pain for twenty days or more. In other words, a very high threshold has been set for an act to qualify as &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo;.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Even the &amp;ldquo;danger to (mental or physical) health&amp;rdquo; provision is not very helpful. The term &amp;ldquo;danger&amp;rdquo; implies a certain level of seriousness, while mental and physical &amp;ldquo;health&amp;rdquo; has frequently been interpreted by courts in civil cases to only include medically recognised illnesses. Given the general rule that criminal laws are interpreted strictly, courts are likely to err on the side of the accused and demand a high threshold for &amp;ldquo;danger to health&amp;rdquo;. The &amp;ldquo;danger to health&amp;rdquo; standard must also be contrasted with the definition of &amp;ldquo;hurt&amp;rdquo; in the Indian Penal Code, which simply includes &amp;ldquo;bodily pain&amp;rdquo;. Similarly, Article 1(1) of the U.N. Convention defines &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo; as the intentional infliction of &amp;ldquo;severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental&amp;rdquo;.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Most reasonable people would agree with the Convention that torture must be understood primarily in terms of the pain that it inflicts, rather than any long-term impact. But, the Bill is likely to be interpreted so that acts that cause severe pain without causing any lasting damage to a person&#039;s health may not amount to torture. Thus, many cases of water-boarding, sexual assault, deprivation of food, water or sleep, whipping, rubbing chillies on sensitive body parts and other such barbaric acts readily condemned by most reasonable people may not amount to &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo; under the proposed Bill. As if this definitional ambiguity was not bad enough, the Bill is cynically silent on &amp;ldquo;other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment&amp;rdquo;, whose prohibition is an essential requirement under the U.N. Convention.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;To make matters worse, Clause 4 of the Bill lays down that even if an act qualifies as &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo;, it will be punishable only if it was committed &amp;ldquo;for the purpose of extorting ... any confession or any information which may lead to the detection of an offence...; and on the ground of [a person&#039;s] religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste or community or any other ground...&amp;rdquo;. So, if a police officer breaks a few bones in order to intimidate a person, to extort money, to &amp;ldquo;teach her a lesson&amp;rdquo;, or for no reason whatsoever, he cannot be punished under this bizarre Bill. Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse to take notice.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;But even if this was indeed the case, there is yet another condition to satisfy &amp;mdash; the victim must, in addition, show that the torture was based on some form of discrimination. It is true that many people are routinely tortured in India merely for being Dalit, Muslim, tribal or hijra. But the correct response is the formula in the U.N. Convention, which prohibits torture &amp;ldquo;for any reason based on discrimination of any kind&amp;rdquo; as an independent, rather than an additional, ingredient of torture. Thus, the Bill only punishes those acts of torture which result in a very serious injury, were motivated by a desire to extract a confession or information, and were discriminatory. Nothing less would suffice.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The next hurdle in this obstacle race is Clause 5, which requires that a court can entertain a complaint only if it is made within six months of the date of the offence. Victims of torture tend to be vulnerable people, who often need a lot of time to overcome the physical and psychological trauma, find support, organise resources and gather courage to make the complaint. As a general rule, criminal laws tend to prescribe no time limits whatsoever, let alone one as short as six months.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Finally, Clause 6 prohibits a court from taking cognisance of a complaint without the ever-elusive prior sanction to prosecute from the government. The Bill might as well be headed &amp;ldquo;Impunity for Torturers Bill&amp;rdquo;, for it is not meant to bring any torturer to book. It is designed to save our government from criticism in the international community and preserve the facade of a rights-respecting liberal democracy. In reality, it fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens. Rudyard Kipling said that the colonial government gave its subjects:&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;A time to squabble in court &amp;hellip;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Jails &amp;mdash; and Police to fight,&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Justice &amp;mdash; at length of days,&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;And Right &amp;mdash; and Might in the Right.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;This may well be true of democratic India.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;&lt;em&gt;(The writer is a Fellow in Law, Christ Church, Oxford.)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;,
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&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Prevention of Torture Bill fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse to take notice&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;A court can entertain a complaint under the proposed law only if it is made within six months of the date of the offence&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The right against &lt;a href=&quot;../articles.php?articleId=56&amp;amp;pgno=2&quot;&gt;torture&lt;/a&gt;, quite uniquely, admits to no exceptions whatsoever under international and comparative law. In practice, however, it remains one of the most frequently violated rights. The Minister of State for Home recently introduced the Prevention of Torture Bill in Lok Sabha, in order &amp;ldquo;to provide punishment for torture inflicted by public servants&amp;rdquo;. The main intention behind the Bill is to enable India to ratify the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. With 146 ratifications in place, India&#039;s continued failure to do so is a source of deep embarrassment and raises doubts over her claims to be a liberal democracy. Indeed, the chief motivation behind the Bill is to polish India&#039;s international image rather than to protect her citizens from torture.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Clause 3 of the Bill defines &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo; as an intentional act which causes &amp;ldquo;grievous hurt&amp;rdquo; or &amp;ldquo;danger to life, limb or health&amp;rdquo;. Grievous hurt is defined under Section 320 of the Indian Penal Code to include extremely serious injuries such as permanent loss of eye or ear, emasculation, bone fractures, or hurt which causes severe and debilitating pain for twenty days or more. In other words, a very high threshold has been set for an act to qualify as &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo;.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Even the &amp;ldquo;danger to (mental or physical) health&amp;rdquo; provision is not very helpful. The term &amp;ldquo;danger&amp;rdquo; implies a certain level of seriousness, while mental and physical &amp;ldquo;health&amp;rdquo; has frequently been interpreted by courts in civil cases to only include medically recognised illnesses. Given the general rule that criminal laws are interpreted strictly, courts are likely to err on the side of the accused and demand a high threshold for &amp;ldquo;danger to health&amp;rdquo;. The &amp;ldquo;danger to health&amp;rdquo; standard must also be contrasted with the definition of &amp;ldquo;hurt&amp;rdquo; in the Indian Penal Code, which simply includes &amp;ldquo;bodily pain&amp;rdquo;. Similarly, Article 1(1) of the U.N. Convention defines &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo; as the intentional infliction of &amp;ldquo;severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental&amp;rdquo;.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Most reasonable people would agree with the Convention that torture must be understood primarily in terms of the pain that it inflicts, rather than any long-term impact. But, the Bill is likely to be interpreted so that acts that cause severe pain without causing any lasting damage to a person&#039;s health may not amount to torture. Thus, many cases of water-boarding, sexual assault, deprivation of food, water or sleep, whipping, rubbing chillies on sensitive body parts and other such barbaric acts readily condemned by most reasonable people may not amount to &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo; under the proposed Bill. As if this definitional ambiguity was not bad enough, the Bill is cynically silent on &amp;ldquo;other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment&amp;rdquo;, whose prohibition is an essential requirement under the U.N. Convention.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;To make matters worse, Clause 4 of the Bill lays down that even if an act qualifies as &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo;, it will be punishable only if it was committed &amp;ldquo;for the purpose of extorting ... any confession or any information which may lead to the detection of an offence...; and on the ground of [a person&#039;s] religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste or community or any other ground...&amp;rdquo;. So, if a police officer breaks a few bones in order to intimidate a person, to extort money, to &amp;ldquo;teach her a lesson&amp;rdquo;, or for no reason whatsoever, he cannot be punished under this bizarre Bill. Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse to take notice.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;But even if this was indeed the case, there is yet another condition to satisfy &amp;mdash; the victim must, in addition, show that the torture was based on some form of discrimination. It is true that many people are routinely tortured in India merely for being Dalit, Muslim, tribal or hijra. But the correct response is the formula in the U.N. Convention, which prohibits torture &amp;ldquo;for any reason based on discrimination of any kind&amp;rdquo; as an independent, rather than an additional, ingredient of torture. Thus, the Bill only punishes those acts of torture which result in a very serious injury, were motivated by a desire to extract a confession or information, and were discriminatory. Nothing less would suffice.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The next hurdle in this obstacle race is Clause 5, which requires that a court can entertain a complaint only if it is made within six months of the date of the offence. Victims of torture tend to be vulnerable people, who often need a lot of time to overcome the physical and psychological trauma, find support, organise resources and gather courage to make the complaint. As a general rule, criminal laws tend to prescribe no time limits whatsoever, let alone one as short as six months.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Finally, Clause 6 prohibits a court from taking cognisance of a complaint without the ever-elusive prior sanction to prosecute from the government. The Bill might as well be headed &amp;ldquo;Impunity for Torturers Bill&amp;rdquo;, for it is not meant to bring any torturer to book. It is designed to save our government from criticism in the international community and preserve the facade of a rights-respecting liberal democracy. In reality, it fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens. Rudyard Kipling said that the colonial government gave its subjects:&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;A time to squabble in court &amp;hellip;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Jails &amp;mdash; and Police to fight,&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Justice &amp;mdash; at length of days,&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;And Right &amp;mdash; and Might in the Right.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;This may well be true of democratic India.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;(The writer is a Fellow in Law, Christ Church, Oxford.)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
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The Prevention of Torture Bill fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens.&amp;nbsp; 


Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;font &gt;&lt;em&gt;The Prevention of Torture Bill fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;&lt;em&gt;Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse to take notice&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;&lt;em&gt;A court can entertain a complaint under the proposed law only if it is made within six months of the date of the offence&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The right against &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/articles.php?articleId=56&amp;amp;pgno=2&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/articles.php?articleId=56&amp;amp;pgno=2&quot;&gt;torture&lt;/a&gt;, quite uniquely, admits to no exceptions whatsoever under international and comparative law. In practice, however, it remains one of the most frequently violated rights. The Minister of State for Home recently introduced the Prevention of Torture Bill in Lok Sabha, in order &amp;ldquo;to provide punishment for torture inflicted by public servants&amp;rdquo;. The main intention behind the Bill is to enable India to ratify the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. With 146 ratifications in place, India&#039;s continued failure to do so is a source of deep embarrassment and raises doubts over her claims to be a liberal democracy. Indeed, the chief motivation behind the Bill is to polish India&#039;s international image rather than to protect her citizens from torture.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Clause 3 of the Bill defines &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo; as an intentional act which causes &amp;ldquo;grievous hurt&amp;rdquo; or &amp;ldquo;danger to life, limb or health&amp;rdquo;. Grievous hurt is defined under Section 320 of the Indian Penal Code to include extremely serious injuries such as permanent loss of eye or ear, emasculation, bone fractures, or hurt which causes severe and debilitating pain for twenty days or more. In other words, a very high threshold has been set for an act to qualify as &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo;.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Even the &amp;ldquo;danger to (mental or physical) health&amp;rdquo; provision is not very helpful. The term &amp;ldquo;danger&amp;rdquo; implies a certain level of seriousness, while mental and physical &amp;ldquo;health&amp;rdquo; has frequently been interpreted by courts in civil cases to only include medically recognised illnesses. Given the general rule that criminal laws are interpreted strictly, courts are likely to err on the side of the accused and demand a high threshold for &amp;ldquo;danger to health&amp;rdquo;. The &amp;ldquo;danger to health&amp;rdquo; standard must also be contrasted with the definition of &amp;ldquo;hurt&amp;rdquo; in the Indian Penal Code, which simply includes &amp;ldquo;bodily pain&amp;rdquo;. Similarly, Article 1(1) of the U.N. Convention defines &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo; as the intentional infliction of &amp;ldquo;severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental&amp;rdquo;.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Most reasonable people would agree with the Convention that torture must be understood primarily in terms of the pain that it inflicts, rather than any long-term impact. But, the Bill is likely to be interpreted so that acts that cause severe pain without causing any lasting damage to a person&#039;s health may not amount to torture. Thus, many cases of water-boarding, sexual assault, deprivation of food, water or sleep, whipping, rubbing chillies on sensitive body parts and other such barbaric acts readily condemned by most reasonable people may not amount to &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo; under the proposed Bill. As if this definitional ambiguity was not bad enough, the Bill is cynically silent on &amp;ldquo;other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment&amp;rdquo;, whose prohibition is an essential requirement under the U.N. Convention.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;To make matters worse, Clause 4 of the Bill lays down that even if an act qualifies as &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo;, it will be punishable only if it was committed &amp;ldquo;for the purpose of extorting ... any confession or any information which may lead to the detection of an offence...; and on the ground of [a person&#039;s] religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste or community or any other ground...&amp;rdquo;. So, if a police officer breaks a few bones in order to intimidate a person, to extort money, to &amp;ldquo;teach her a lesson&amp;rdquo;, or for no reason whatsoever, he cannot be punished under this bizarre Bill. Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse to take notice.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;But even if this was indeed the case, there is yet another condition to satisfy &amp;mdash; the victim must, in addition, show that the torture was based on some form of discrimination. It is true that many people are routinely tortured in India merely for being Dalit, Muslim, tribal or hijra. But the correct response is the formula in the U.N. Convention, which prohibits torture &amp;ldquo;for any reason based on discrimination of any kind&amp;rdquo; as an independent, rather than an additional, ingredient of torture. Thus, the Bill only punishes those acts of torture which result in a very serious injury, were motivated by a desire to extract a confession or information, and were discriminatory. Nothing less would suffice.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The next hurdle in this obstacle race is Clause 5, which requires that a court can entertain a complaint only if it is made within six months of the date of the offence. Victims of torture tend to be vulnerable people, who often need a lot of time to overcome the physical and psychological trauma, find support, organise resources and gather courage to make the complaint. As a general rule, criminal laws tend to prescribe no time limits whatsoever, let alone one as short as six months.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Finally, Clause 6 prohibits a court from taking cognisance of a complaint without the ever-elusive prior sanction to prosecute from the government. The Bill might as well be headed &amp;ldquo;Impunity for Torturers Bill&amp;rdquo;, for it is not meant to bring any torturer to book. It is designed to save our government from criticism in the international community and preserve the facade of a rights-respecting liberal democracy. In reality, it fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens. Rudyard Kipling said that the colonial government gave its subjects:&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;A time to squabble in court &amp;hellip;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Jails &amp;mdash; and Police to fight,&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Justice &amp;mdash; at length of days,&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;And Right &amp;mdash; and Might in the Right.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;This may well be true of democratic India.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;&lt;em&gt;(The writer is a Fellow in Law, Christ Church, Oxford.)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;
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            <h1 class="news_headlines" style="font-style:normal">
                <strong>A Bill designed to fail by Tarunabh Khaitan</strong></h1>
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        <td width="100%" style="font-family:Arial, 'Segoe Script', 'Segoe UI', sans-serif, serif"><font size="3">
                <p align="justify"><br /><font ><em>The Prevention of Torture Bill fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens.&nbsp; </em></font></p><p align="justify"><font ><em>Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse to take notice</em></font></p><p align="justify"><font ><em>A court can entertain a complaint under the proposed law only if it is made within six months of the date of the offence</em></font></p><p align="justify"><font >The right against <a href="https://im4change.in/articles.php?articleId=56&amp;pgno=2" title="https://im4change.in/articles.php?articleId=56&amp;pgno=2">torture</a>, quite uniquely, admits to no exceptions whatsoever under international and comparative law. In practice, however, it remains one of the most frequently violated rights. The Minister of State for Home recently introduced the Prevention of Torture Bill in Lok Sabha, in order &ldquo;to provide punishment for torture inflicted by public servants&rdquo;. The main intention behind the Bill is to enable India to ratify the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. With 146 ratifications in place, India's continued failure to do so is a source of deep embarrassment and raises doubts over her claims to be a liberal democracy. Indeed, the chief motivation behind the Bill is to polish India's international image rather than to protect her citizens from torture.</font></p><p align="justify"><font >Clause 3 of the Bill defines &ldquo;torture&rdquo; as an intentional act which causes &ldquo;grievous hurt&rdquo; or &ldquo;danger to life, limb or health&rdquo;. Grievous hurt is defined under Section 320 of the Indian Penal Code to include extremely serious injuries such as permanent loss of eye or ear, emasculation, bone fractures, or hurt which causes severe and debilitating pain for twenty days or more. In other words, a very high threshold has been set for an act to qualify as &ldquo;torture&rdquo;.</font></p><p align="justify"><font >Even the &ldquo;danger to (mental or physical) health&rdquo; provision is not very helpful. The term &ldquo;danger&rdquo; implies a certain level of seriousness, while mental and physical &ldquo;health&rdquo; has frequently been interpreted by courts in civil cases to only include medically recognised illnesses. Given the general rule that criminal laws are interpreted strictly, courts are likely to err on the side of the accused and demand a high threshold for &ldquo;danger to health&rdquo;. The &ldquo;danger to health&rdquo; standard must also be contrasted with the definition of &ldquo;hurt&rdquo; in the Indian Penal Code, which simply includes &ldquo;bodily pain&rdquo;. Similarly, Article 1(1) of the U.N. Convention defines &ldquo;torture&rdquo; as the intentional infliction of &ldquo;severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental&rdquo;.</font></p><p align="justify"><font >Most reasonable people would agree with the Convention that torture must be understood primarily in terms of the pain that it inflicts, rather than any long-term impact. But, the Bill is likely to be interpreted so that acts that cause severe pain without causing any lasting damage to a person's health may not amount to torture. Thus, many cases of water-boarding, sexual assault, deprivation of food, water or sleep, whipping, rubbing chillies on sensitive body parts and other such barbaric acts readily condemned by most reasonable people may not amount to &ldquo;torture&rdquo; under the proposed Bill. As if this definitional ambiguity was not bad enough, the Bill is cynically silent on &ldquo;other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment&rdquo;, whose prohibition is an essential requirement under the U.N. Convention.</font></p><p align="justify"><font >To make matters worse, Clause 4 of the Bill lays down that even if an act qualifies as &ldquo;torture&rdquo;, it will be punishable only if it was committed &ldquo;for the purpose of extorting ... any confession or any information which may lead to the detection of an offence...; and on the ground of [a person's] religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste or community or any other ground...&rdquo;. So, if a police officer breaks a few bones in order to intimidate a person, to extort money, to &ldquo;teach her a lesson&rdquo;, or for no reason whatsoever, he cannot be punished under this bizarre Bill. Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse to take notice.</font></p><p align="justify"><font >But even if this was indeed the case, there is yet another condition to satisfy &mdash; the victim must, in addition, show that the torture was based on some form of discrimination. It is true that many people are routinely tortured in India merely for being Dalit, Muslim, tribal or hijra. But the correct response is the formula in the U.N. Convention, which prohibits torture &ldquo;for any reason based on discrimination of any kind&rdquo; as an independent, rather than an additional, ingredient of torture. Thus, the Bill only punishes those acts of torture which result in a very serious injury, were motivated by a desire to extract a confession or information, and were discriminatory. Nothing less would suffice.</font></p><p align="justify"><font >The next hurdle in this obstacle race is Clause 5, which requires that a court can entertain a complaint only if it is made within six months of the date of the offence. Victims of torture tend to be vulnerable people, who often need a lot of time to overcome the physical and psychological trauma, find support, organise resources and gather courage to make the complaint. As a general rule, criminal laws tend to prescribe no time limits whatsoever, let alone one as short as six months.</font></p><p align="justify"><font >Finally, Clause 6 prohibits a court from taking cognisance of a complaint without the ever-elusive prior sanction to prosecute from the government. The Bill might as well be headed &ldquo;Impunity for Torturers Bill&rdquo;, for it is not meant to bring any torturer to book. It is designed to save our government from criticism in the international community and preserve the facade of a rights-respecting liberal democracy. In reality, it fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens. Rudyard Kipling said that the colonial government gave its subjects:</font></p><p align="justify"><font >A time to squabble in court &hellip;</font></p><p align="justify"><font >Jails &mdash; and Police to fight,</font></p><p align="justify"><font >Justice &mdash; at length of days,</font></p><p align="justify"><font >And Right &mdash; and Might in the Right.</font></p><p align="justify"><font >This may well be true of democratic India.</font></p><p align="justify"><font ><em>(The writer is a Fellow in Law, Christ Church, Oxford.)<br /></em></font></p>               </font>
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&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Prevention of Torture Bill fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse to take notice&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;A court can entertain a complaint under the proposed law only if it is made within six months of the date of the offence&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The right against &lt;a href=&quot;../articles.php?articleId=56&amp;amp;pgno=2&quot;&gt;torture&lt;/a&gt;, quite uniquely, admits to no exceptions whatsoever under international and comparative law. In practice, however, it remains one of the most frequently violated rights. The Minister of State for Home recently introduced the Prevention of Torture Bill in Lok Sabha, in order &amp;ldquo;to provide punishment for torture inflicted by public servants&amp;rdquo;. The main intention behind the Bill is to enable India to ratify the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. With 146 ratifications in place, India&#039;s continued failure to do so is a source of deep embarrassment and raises doubts over her claims to be a liberal democracy. Indeed, the chief motivation behind the Bill is to polish India&#039;s international image rather than to protect her citizens from torture.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Clause 3 of the Bill defines &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo; as an intentional act which causes &amp;ldquo;grievous hurt&amp;rdquo; or &amp;ldquo;danger to life, limb or health&amp;rdquo;. Grievous hurt is defined under Section 320 of the Indian Penal Code to include extremely serious injuries such as permanent loss of eye or ear, emasculation, bone fractures, or hurt which causes severe and debilitating pain for twenty days or more. In other words, a very high threshold has been set for an act to qualify as &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo;.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Even the &amp;ldquo;danger to (mental or physical) health&amp;rdquo; provision is not very helpful. The term &amp;ldquo;danger&amp;rdquo; implies a certain level of seriousness, while mental and physical &amp;ldquo;health&amp;rdquo; has frequently been interpreted by courts in civil cases to only include medically recognised illnesses. Given the general rule that criminal laws are interpreted strictly, courts are likely to err on the side of the accused and demand a high threshold for &amp;ldquo;danger to health&amp;rdquo;. The &amp;ldquo;danger to health&amp;rdquo; standard must also be contrasted with the definition of &amp;ldquo;hurt&amp;rdquo; in the Indian Penal Code, which simply includes &amp;ldquo;bodily pain&amp;rdquo;. Similarly, Article 1(1) of the U.N. Convention defines &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo; as the intentional infliction of &amp;ldquo;severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental&amp;rdquo;.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Most reasonable people would agree with the Convention that torture must be understood primarily in terms of the pain that it inflicts, rather than any long-term impact. But, the Bill is likely to be interpreted so that acts that cause severe pain without causing any lasting damage to a person&#039;s health may not amount to torture. Thus, many cases of water-boarding, sexual assault, deprivation of food, water or sleep, whipping, rubbing chillies on sensitive body parts and other such barbaric acts readily condemned by most reasonable people may not amount to &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo; under the proposed Bill. As if this definitional ambiguity was not bad enough, the Bill is cynically silent on &amp;ldquo;other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment&amp;rdquo;, whose prohibition is an essential requirement under the U.N. Convention.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;To make matters worse, Clause 4 of the Bill lays down that even if an act qualifies as &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo;, it will be punishable only if it was committed &amp;ldquo;for the purpose of extorting ... any confession or any information which may lead to the detection of an offence...; and on the ground of [a person&#039;s] religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste or community or any other ground...&amp;rdquo;. So, if a police officer breaks a few bones in order to intimidate a person, to extort money, to &amp;ldquo;teach her a lesson&amp;rdquo;, or for no reason whatsoever, he cannot be punished under this bizarre Bill. Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse to take notice.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;But even if this was indeed the case, there is yet another condition to satisfy &amp;mdash; the victim must, in addition, show that the torture was based on some form of discrimination. It is true that many people are routinely tortured in India merely for being Dalit, Muslim, tribal or hijra. But the correct response is the formula in the U.N. Convention, which prohibits torture &amp;ldquo;for any reason based on discrimination of any kind&amp;rdquo; as an independent, rather than an additional, ingredient of torture. Thus, the Bill only punishes those acts of torture which result in a very serious injury, were motivated by a desire to extract a confession or information, and were discriminatory. Nothing less would suffice.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The next hurdle in this obstacle race is Clause 5, which requires that a court can entertain a complaint only if it is made within six months of the date of the offence. Victims of torture tend to be vulnerable people, who often need a lot of time to overcome the physical and psychological trauma, find support, organise resources and gather courage to make the complaint. As a general rule, criminal laws tend to prescribe no time limits whatsoever, let alone one as short as six months.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Finally, Clause 6 prohibits a court from taking cognisance of a complaint without the ever-elusive prior sanction to prosecute from the government. The Bill might as well be headed &amp;ldquo;Impunity for Torturers Bill&amp;rdquo;, for it is not meant to bring any torturer to book. It is designed to save our government from criticism in the international community and preserve the facade of a rights-respecting liberal democracy. In reality, it fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens. Rudyard Kipling said that the colonial government gave its subjects:&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;A time to squabble in court &amp;hellip;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Jails &amp;mdash; and Police to fight,&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Justice &amp;mdash; at length of days,&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;And Right &amp;mdash; and Might in the Right.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;This may well be true of democratic India.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;(The writer is a Fellow in Law, Christ Church, Oxford.)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
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The Prevention of Torture Bill fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens.&amp;nbsp; 


Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;font &gt;&lt;em&gt;The Prevention of Torture Bill fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;&lt;em&gt;Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse to take notice&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;&lt;em&gt;A court can entertain a complaint under the proposed law only if it is made within six months of the date of the offence&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The right against &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/articles.php?articleId=56&amp;amp;pgno=2&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/articles.php?articleId=56&amp;amp;pgno=2&quot;&gt;torture&lt;/a&gt;, quite uniquely, admits to no exceptions whatsoever under international and comparative law. In practice, however, it remains one of the most frequently violated rights. The Minister of State for Home recently introduced the Prevention of Torture Bill in Lok Sabha, in order &amp;ldquo;to provide punishment for torture inflicted by public servants&amp;rdquo;. The main intention behind the Bill is to enable India to ratify the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. With 146 ratifications in place, India&#039;s continued failure to do so is a source of deep embarrassment and raises doubts over her claims to be a liberal democracy. Indeed, the chief motivation behind the Bill is to polish India&#039;s international image rather than to protect her citizens from torture.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Clause 3 of the Bill defines &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo; as an intentional act which causes &amp;ldquo;grievous hurt&amp;rdquo; or &amp;ldquo;danger to life, limb or health&amp;rdquo;. Grievous hurt is defined under Section 320 of the Indian Penal Code to include extremely serious injuries such as permanent loss of eye or ear, emasculation, bone fractures, or hurt which causes severe and debilitating pain for twenty days or more. In other words, a very high threshold has been set for an act to qualify as &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo;.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Even the &amp;ldquo;danger to (mental or physical) health&amp;rdquo; provision is not very helpful. The term &amp;ldquo;danger&amp;rdquo; implies a certain level of seriousness, while mental and physical &amp;ldquo;health&amp;rdquo; has frequently been interpreted by courts in civil cases to only include medically recognised illnesses. Given the general rule that criminal laws are interpreted strictly, courts are likely to err on the side of the accused and demand a high threshold for &amp;ldquo;danger to health&amp;rdquo;. The &amp;ldquo;danger to health&amp;rdquo; standard must also be contrasted with the definition of &amp;ldquo;hurt&amp;rdquo; in the Indian Penal Code, which simply includes &amp;ldquo;bodily pain&amp;rdquo;. Similarly, Article 1(1) of the U.N. Convention defines &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo; as the intentional infliction of &amp;ldquo;severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental&amp;rdquo;.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Most reasonable people would agree with the Convention that torture must be understood primarily in terms of the pain that it inflicts, rather than any long-term impact. But, the Bill is likely to be interpreted so that acts that cause severe pain without causing any lasting damage to a person&#039;s health may not amount to torture. Thus, many cases of water-boarding, sexual assault, deprivation of food, water or sleep, whipping, rubbing chillies on sensitive body parts and other such barbaric acts readily condemned by most reasonable people may not amount to &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo; under the proposed Bill. As if this definitional ambiguity was not bad enough, the Bill is cynically silent on &amp;ldquo;other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment&amp;rdquo;, whose prohibition is an essential requirement under the U.N. Convention.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;To make matters worse, Clause 4 of the Bill lays down that even if an act qualifies as &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo;, it will be punishable only if it was committed &amp;ldquo;for the purpose of extorting ... any confession or any information which may lead to the detection of an offence...; and on the ground of [a person&#039;s] religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste or community or any other ground...&amp;rdquo;. So, if a police officer breaks a few bones in order to intimidate a person, to extort money, to &amp;ldquo;teach her a lesson&amp;rdquo;, or for no reason whatsoever, he cannot be punished under this bizarre Bill. Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse to take notice.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;But even if this was indeed the case, there is yet another condition to satisfy &amp;mdash; the victim must, in addition, show that the torture was based on some form of discrimination. It is true that many people are routinely tortured in India merely for being Dalit, Muslim, tribal or hijra. But the correct response is the formula in the U.N. Convention, which prohibits torture &amp;ldquo;for any reason based on discrimination of any kind&amp;rdquo; as an independent, rather than an additional, ingredient of torture. Thus, the Bill only punishes those acts of torture which result in a very serious injury, were motivated by a desire to extract a confession or information, and were discriminatory. Nothing less would suffice.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The next hurdle in this obstacle race is Clause 5, which requires that a court can entertain a complaint only if it is made within six months of the date of the offence. Victims of torture tend to be vulnerable people, who often need a lot of time to overcome the physical and psychological trauma, find support, organise resources and gather courage to make the complaint. As a general rule, criminal laws tend to prescribe no time limits whatsoever, let alone one as short as six months.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Finally, Clause 6 prohibits a court from taking cognisance of a complaint without the ever-elusive prior sanction to prosecute from the government. The Bill might as well be headed &amp;ldquo;Impunity for Torturers Bill&amp;rdquo;, for it is not meant to bring any torturer to book. It is designed to save our government from criticism in the international community and preserve the facade of a rights-respecting liberal democracy. In reality, it fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens. Rudyard Kipling said that the colonial government gave its subjects:&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;A time to squabble in court &amp;hellip;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Jails &amp;mdash; and Police to fight,&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Justice &amp;mdash; at length of days,&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;And Right &amp;mdash; and Might in the Right.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;This may well be true of democratic India.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;&lt;em&gt;(The writer is a Fellow in Law, Christ Church, Oxford.)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;,
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	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;A Bill designed to fail by Tarunabh Khaitan&#039;,
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&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Prevention of Torture Bill fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse to take notice&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;A court can entertain a complaint under the proposed law only if it is made within six months of the date of the offence&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The right against &lt;a href=&quot;../articles.php?articleId=56&amp;amp;pgno=2&quot;&gt;torture&lt;/a&gt;, quite uniquely, admits to no exceptions whatsoever under international and comparative law. In practice, however, it remains one of the most frequently violated rights. The Minister of State for Home recently introduced the Prevention of Torture Bill in Lok Sabha, in order &amp;ldquo;to provide punishment for torture inflicted by public servants&amp;rdquo;. The main intention behind the Bill is to enable India to ratify the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. With 146 ratifications in place, India&#039;s continued failure to do so is a source of deep embarrassment and raises doubts over her claims to be a liberal democracy. Indeed, the chief motivation behind the Bill is to polish India&#039;s international image rather than to protect her citizens from torture.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Clause 3 of the Bill defines &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo; as an intentional act which causes &amp;ldquo;grievous hurt&amp;rdquo; or &amp;ldquo;danger to life, limb or health&amp;rdquo;. Grievous hurt is defined under Section 320 of the Indian Penal Code to include extremely serious injuries such as permanent loss of eye or ear, emasculation, bone fractures, or hurt which causes severe and debilitating pain for twenty days or more. In other words, a very high threshold has been set for an act to qualify as &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo;.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Even the &amp;ldquo;danger to (mental or physical) health&amp;rdquo; provision is not very helpful. The term &amp;ldquo;danger&amp;rdquo; implies a certain level of seriousness, while mental and physical &amp;ldquo;health&amp;rdquo; has frequently been interpreted by courts in civil cases to only include medically recognised illnesses. Given the general rule that criminal laws are interpreted strictly, courts are likely to err on the side of the accused and demand a high threshold for &amp;ldquo;danger to health&amp;rdquo;. The &amp;ldquo;danger to health&amp;rdquo; standard must also be contrasted with the definition of &amp;ldquo;hurt&amp;rdquo; in the Indian Penal Code, which simply includes &amp;ldquo;bodily pain&amp;rdquo;. Similarly, Article 1(1) of the U.N. Convention defines &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo; as the intentional infliction of &amp;ldquo;severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental&amp;rdquo;.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Most reasonable people would agree with the Convention that torture must be understood primarily in terms of the pain that it inflicts, rather than any long-term impact. But, the Bill is likely to be interpreted so that acts that cause severe pain without causing any lasting damage to a person&#039;s health may not amount to torture. Thus, many cases of water-boarding, sexual assault, deprivation of food, water or sleep, whipping, rubbing chillies on sensitive body parts and other such barbaric acts readily condemned by most reasonable people may not amount to &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo; under the proposed Bill. As if this definitional ambiguity was not bad enough, the Bill is cynically silent on &amp;ldquo;other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment&amp;rdquo;, whose prohibition is an essential requirement under the U.N. Convention.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;To make matters worse, Clause 4 of the Bill lays down that even if an act qualifies as &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo;, it will be punishable only if it was committed &amp;ldquo;for the purpose of extorting ... any confession or any information which may lead to the detection of an offence...; and on the ground of [a person&#039;s] religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste or community or any other ground...&amp;rdquo;. So, if a police officer breaks a few bones in order to intimidate a person, to extort money, to &amp;ldquo;teach her a lesson&amp;rdquo;, or for no reason whatsoever, he cannot be punished under this bizarre Bill. Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse to take notice.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;But even if this was indeed the case, there is yet another condition to satisfy &amp;mdash; the victim must, in addition, show that the torture was based on some form of discrimination. It is true that many people are routinely tortured in India merely for being Dalit, Muslim, tribal or hijra. But the correct response is the formula in the U.N. Convention, which prohibits torture &amp;ldquo;for any reason based on discrimination of any kind&amp;rdquo; as an independent, rather than an additional, ingredient of torture. Thus, the Bill only punishes those acts of torture which result in a very serious injury, were motivated by a desire to extract a confession or information, and were discriminatory. Nothing less would suffice.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The next hurdle in this obstacle race is Clause 5, which requires that a court can entertain a complaint only if it is made within six months of the date of the offence. Victims of torture tend to be vulnerable people, who often need a lot of time to overcome the physical and psychological trauma, find support, organise resources and gather courage to make the complaint. As a general rule, criminal laws tend to prescribe no time limits whatsoever, let alone one as short as six months.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Finally, Clause 6 prohibits a court from taking cognisance of a complaint without the ever-elusive prior sanction to prosecute from the government. The Bill might as well be headed &amp;ldquo;Impunity for Torturers Bill&amp;rdquo;, for it is not meant to bring any torturer to book. It is designed to save our government from criticism in the international community and preserve the facade of a rights-respecting liberal democracy. In reality, it fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens. Rudyard Kipling said that the colonial government gave its subjects:&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;A time to squabble in court &amp;hellip;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Jails &amp;mdash; and Police to fight,&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Justice &amp;mdash; at length of days,&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;And Right &amp;mdash; and Might in the Right.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;This may well be true of democratic India.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;(The writer is a Fellow in Law, Christ Church, Oxford.)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
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	&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;The Hindu, 19 May, 2010, http://www.hindu.com/2010/05/19/stories/2010051957251300.htm&#039;,
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The Prevention of Torture Bill fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens.&amp;nbsp; 


Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;font &gt;&lt;em&gt;The Prevention of Torture Bill fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;&lt;em&gt;Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse to take notice&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;&lt;em&gt;A court can entertain a complaint under the proposed law only if it is made within six months of the date of the offence&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The right against &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/articles.php?articleId=56&amp;amp;pgno=2&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/articles.php?articleId=56&amp;amp;pgno=2&quot;&gt;torture&lt;/a&gt;, quite uniquely, admits to no exceptions whatsoever under international and comparative law. In practice, however, it remains one of the most frequently violated rights. The Minister of State for Home recently introduced the Prevention of Torture Bill in Lok Sabha, in order &amp;ldquo;to provide punishment for torture inflicted by public servants&amp;rdquo;. The main intention behind the Bill is to enable India to ratify the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. With 146 ratifications in place, India&#039;s continued failure to do so is a source of deep embarrassment and raises doubts over her claims to be a liberal democracy. Indeed, the chief motivation behind the Bill is to polish India&#039;s international image rather than to protect her citizens from torture.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Clause 3 of the Bill defines &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo; as an intentional act which causes &amp;ldquo;grievous hurt&amp;rdquo; or &amp;ldquo;danger to life, limb or health&amp;rdquo;. Grievous hurt is defined under Section 320 of the Indian Penal Code to include extremely serious injuries such as permanent loss of eye or ear, emasculation, bone fractures, or hurt which causes severe and debilitating pain for twenty days or more. In other words, a very high threshold has been set for an act to qualify as &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo;.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Even the &amp;ldquo;danger to (mental or physical) health&amp;rdquo; provision is not very helpful. The term &amp;ldquo;danger&amp;rdquo; implies a certain level of seriousness, while mental and physical &amp;ldquo;health&amp;rdquo; has frequently been interpreted by courts in civil cases to only include medically recognised illnesses. Given the general rule that criminal laws are interpreted strictly, courts are likely to err on the side of the accused and demand a high threshold for &amp;ldquo;danger to health&amp;rdquo;. The &amp;ldquo;danger to health&amp;rdquo; standard must also be contrasted with the definition of &amp;ldquo;hurt&amp;rdquo; in the Indian Penal Code, which simply includes &amp;ldquo;bodily pain&amp;rdquo;. Similarly, Article 1(1) of the U.N. Convention defines &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo; as the intentional infliction of &amp;ldquo;severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental&amp;rdquo;.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Most reasonable people would agree with the Convention that torture must be understood primarily in terms of the pain that it inflicts, rather than any long-term impact. But, the Bill is likely to be interpreted so that acts that cause severe pain without causing any lasting damage to a person&#039;s health may not amount to torture. Thus, many cases of water-boarding, sexual assault, deprivation of food, water or sleep, whipping, rubbing chillies on sensitive body parts and other such barbaric acts readily condemned by most reasonable people may not amount to &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo; under the proposed Bill. As if this definitional ambiguity was not bad enough, the Bill is cynically silent on &amp;ldquo;other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment&amp;rdquo;, whose prohibition is an essential requirement under the U.N. Convention.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;To make matters worse, Clause 4 of the Bill lays down that even if an act qualifies as &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo;, it will be punishable only if it was committed &amp;ldquo;for the purpose of extorting ... any confession or any information which may lead to the detection of an offence...; and on the ground of [a person&#039;s] religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste or community or any other ground...&amp;rdquo;. So, if a police officer breaks a few bones in order to intimidate a person, to extort money, to &amp;ldquo;teach her a lesson&amp;rdquo;, or for no reason whatsoever, he cannot be punished under this bizarre Bill. Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse to take notice.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;But even if this was indeed the case, there is yet another condition to satisfy &amp;mdash; the victim must, in addition, show that the torture was based on some form of discrimination. It is true that many people are routinely tortured in India merely for being Dalit, Muslim, tribal or hijra. But the correct response is the formula in the U.N. Convention, which prohibits torture &amp;ldquo;for any reason based on discrimination of any kind&amp;rdquo; as an independent, rather than an additional, ingredient of torture. Thus, the Bill only punishes those acts of torture which result in a very serious injury, were motivated by a desire to extract a confession or information, and were discriminatory. Nothing less would suffice.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The next hurdle in this obstacle race is Clause 5, which requires that a court can entertain a complaint only if it is made within six months of the date of the offence. Victims of torture tend to be vulnerable people, who often need a lot of time to overcome the physical and psychological trauma, find support, organise resources and gather courage to make the complaint. As a general rule, criminal laws tend to prescribe no time limits whatsoever, let alone one as short as six months.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Finally, Clause 6 prohibits a court from taking cognisance of a complaint without the ever-elusive prior sanction to prosecute from the government. The Bill might as well be headed &amp;ldquo;Impunity for Torturers Bill&amp;rdquo;, for it is not meant to bring any torturer to book. It is designed to save our government from criticism in the international community and preserve the facade of a rights-respecting liberal democracy. In reality, it fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens. Rudyard Kipling said that the colonial government gave its subjects:&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;A time to squabble in court &amp;hellip;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Jails &amp;mdash; and Police to fight,&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Justice &amp;mdash; at length of days,&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;And Right &amp;mdash; and Might in the Right.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;This may well be true of democratic India.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;&lt;em&gt;(The writer is a Fellow in Law, Christ Church, Oxford.)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;
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                <strong>A Bill designed to fail by Tarunabh Khaitan</strong></h1>
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                <p align="justify"><br /><font ><em>The Prevention of Torture Bill fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens.&nbsp; </em></font></p><p align="justify"><font ><em>Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse to take notice</em></font></p><p align="justify"><font ><em>A court can entertain a complaint under the proposed law only if it is made within six months of the date of the offence</em></font></p><p align="justify"><font >The right against <a href="https://im4change.in/articles.php?articleId=56&amp;pgno=2" title="https://im4change.in/articles.php?articleId=56&amp;pgno=2">torture</a>, quite uniquely, admits to no exceptions whatsoever under international and comparative law. In practice, however, it remains one of the most frequently violated rights. The Minister of State for Home recently introduced the Prevention of Torture Bill in Lok Sabha, in order &ldquo;to provide punishment for torture inflicted by public servants&rdquo;. The main intention behind the Bill is to enable India to ratify the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. With 146 ratifications in place, India's continued failure to do so is a source of deep embarrassment and raises doubts over her claims to be a liberal democracy. Indeed, the chief motivation behind the Bill is to polish India's international image rather than to protect her citizens from torture.</font></p><p align="justify"><font >Clause 3 of the Bill defines &ldquo;torture&rdquo; as an intentional act which causes &ldquo;grievous hurt&rdquo; or &ldquo;danger to life, limb or health&rdquo;. Grievous hurt is defined under Section 320 of the Indian Penal Code to include extremely serious injuries such as permanent loss of eye or ear, emasculation, bone fractures, or hurt which causes severe and debilitating pain for twenty days or more. In other words, a very high threshold has been set for an act to qualify as &ldquo;torture&rdquo;.</font></p><p align="justify"><font >Even the &ldquo;danger to (mental or physical) health&rdquo; provision is not very helpful. The term &ldquo;danger&rdquo; implies a certain level of seriousness, while mental and physical &ldquo;health&rdquo; has frequently been interpreted by courts in civil cases to only include medically recognised illnesses. Given the general rule that criminal laws are interpreted strictly, courts are likely to err on the side of the accused and demand a high threshold for &ldquo;danger to health&rdquo;. The &ldquo;danger to health&rdquo; standard must also be contrasted with the definition of &ldquo;hurt&rdquo; in the Indian Penal Code, which simply includes &ldquo;bodily pain&rdquo;. Similarly, Article 1(1) of the U.N. Convention defines &ldquo;torture&rdquo; as the intentional infliction of &ldquo;severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental&rdquo;.</font></p><p align="justify"><font >Most reasonable people would agree with the Convention that torture must be understood primarily in terms of the pain that it inflicts, rather than any long-term impact. But, the Bill is likely to be interpreted so that acts that cause severe pain without causing any lasting damage to a person's health may not amount to torture. Thus, many cases of water-boarding, sexual assault, deprivation of food, water or sleep, whipping, rubbing chillies on sensitive body parts and other such barbaric acts readily condemned by most reasonable people may not amount to &ldquo;torture&rdquo; under the proposed Bill. As if this definitional ambiguity was not bad enough, the Bill is cynically silent on &ldquo;other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment&rdquo;, whose prohibition is an essential requirement under the U.N. Convention.</font></p><p align="justify"><font >To make matters worse, Clause 4 of the Bill lays down that even if an act qualifies as &ldquo;torture&rdquo;, it will be punishable only if it was committed &ldquo;for the purpose of extorting ... any confession or any information which may lead to the detection of an offence...; and on the ground of [a person's] religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste or community or any other ground...&rdquo;. So, if a police officer breaks a few bones in order to intimidate a person, to extort money, to &ldquo;teach her a lesson&rdquo;, or for no reason whatsoever, he cannot be punished under this bizarre Bill. Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse to take notice.</font></p><p align="justify"><font >But even if this was indeed the case, there is yet another condition to satisfy &mdash; the victim must, in addition, show that the torture was based on some form of discrimination. It is true that many people are routinely tortured in India merely for being Dalit, Muslim, tribal or hijra. But the correct response is the formula in the U.N. Convention, which prohibits torture &ldquo;for any reason based on discrimination of any kind&rdquo; as an independent, rather than an additional, ingredient of torture. Thus, the Bill only punishes those acts of torture which result in a very serious injury, were motivated by a desire to extract a confession or information, and were discriminatory. Nothing less would suffice.</font></p><p align="justify"><font >The next hurdle in this obstacle race is Clause 5, which requires that a court can entertain a complaint only if it is made within six months of the date of the offence. Victims of torture tend to be vulnerable people, who often need a lot of time to overcome the physical and psychological trauma, find support, organise resources and gather courage to make the complaint. As a general rule, criminal laws tend to prescribe no time limits whatsoever, let alone one as short as six months.</font></p><p align="justify"><font >Finally, Clause 6 prohibits a court from taking cognisance of a complaint without the ever-elusive prior sanction to prosecute from the government. The Bill might as well be headed &ldquo;Impunity for Torturers Bill&rdquo;, for it is not meant to bring any torturer to book. It is designed to save our government from criticism in the international community and preserve the facade of a rights-respecting liberal democracy. In reality, it fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens. Rudyard Kipling said that the colonial government gave its subjects:</font></p><p align="justify"><font >A time to squabble in court &hellip;</font></p><p align="justify"><font >Jails &mdash; and Police to fight,</font></p><p align="justify"><font >Justice &mdash; at length of days,</font></p><p align="justify"><font >And Right &mdash; and Might in the Right.</font></p><p align="justify"><font >This may well be true of democratic India.</font></p><p align="justify"><font ><em>(The writer is a Fellow in Law, Christ Church, Oxford.)<br /></em></font></p>               </font>
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&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Prevention of Torture Bill fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse to take notice&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;A court can entertain a complaint under the proposed law only if it is made within six months of the date of the offence&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The right against &lt;a href=&quot;../articles.php?articleId=56&amp;amp;pgno=2&quot;&gt;torture&lt;/a&gt;, quite uniquely, admits to no exceptions whatsoever under international and comparative law. In practice, however, it remains one of the most frequently violated rights. The Minister of State for Home recently introduced the Prevention of Torture Bill in Lok Sabha, in order &amp;ldquo;to provide punishment for torture inflicted by public servants&amp;rdquo;. The main intention behind the Bill is to enable India to ratify the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. With 146 ratifications in place, India&#039;s continued failure to do so is a source of deep embarrassment and raises doubts over her claims to be a liberal democracy. Indeed, the chief motivation behind the Bill is to polish India&#039;s international image rather than to protect her citizens from torture.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Clause 3 of the Bill defines &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo; as an intentional act which causes &amp;ldquo;grievous hurt&amp;rdquo; or &amp;ldquo;danger to life, limb or health&amp;rdquo;. Grievous hurt is defined under Section 320 of the Indian Penal Code to include extremely serious injuries such as permanent loss of eye or ear, emasculation, bone fractures, or hurt which causes severe and debilitating pain for twenty days or more. In other words, a very high threshold has been set for an act to qualify as &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo;.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Even the &amp;ldquo;danger to (mental or physical) health&amp;rdquo; provision is not very helpful. The term &amp;ldquo;danger&amp;rdquo; implies a certain level of seriousness, while mental and physical &amp;ldquo;health&amp;rdquo; has frequently been interpreted by courts in civil cases to only include medically recognised illnesses. Given the general rule that criminal laws are interpreted strictly, courts are likely to err on the side of the accused and demand a high threshold for &amp;ldquo;danger to health&amp;rdquo;. The &amp;ldquo;danger to health&amp;rdquo; standard must also be contrasted with the definition of &amp;ldquo;hurt&amp;rdquo; in the Indian Penal Code, which simply includes &amp;ldquo;bodily pain&amp;rdquo;. Similarly, Article 1(1) of the U.N. Convention defines &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo; as the intentional infliction of &amp;ldquo;severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental&amp;rdquo;.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Most reasonable people would agree with the Convention that torture must be understood primarily in terms of the pain that it inflicts, rather than any long-term impact. But, the Bill is likely to be interpreted so that acts that cause severe pain without causing any lasting damage to a person&#039;s health may not amount to torture. Thus, many cases of water-boarding, sexual assault, deprivation of food, water or sleep, whipping, rubbing chillies on sensitive body parts and other such barbaric acts readily condemned by most reasonable people may not amount to &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo; under the proposed Bill. As if this definitional ambiguity was not bad enough, the Bill is cynically silent on &amp;ldquo;other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment&amp;rdquo;, whose prohibition is an essential requirement under the U.N. Convention.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;To make matters worse, Clause 4 of the Bill lays down that even if an act qualifies as &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo;, it will be punishable only if it was committed &amp;ldquo;for the purpose of extorting ... any confession or any information which may lead to the detection of an offence...; and on the ground of [a person&#039;s] religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste or community or any other ground...&amp;rdquo;. So, if a police officer breaks a few bones in order to intimidate a person, to extort money, to &amp;ldquo;teach her a lesson&amp;rdquo;, or for no reason whatsoever, he cannot be punished under this bizarre Bill. Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse to take notice.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;But even if this was indeed the case, there is yet another condition to satisfy &amp;mdash; the victim must, in addition, show that the torture was based on some form of discrimination. It is true that many people are routinely tortured in India merely for being Dalit, Muslim, tribal or hijra. But the correct response is the formula in the U.N. Convention, which prohibits torture &amp;ldquo;for any reason based on discrimination of any kind&amp;rdquo; as an independent, rather than an additional, ingredient of torture. Thus, the Bill only punishes those acts of torture which result in a very serious injury, were motivated by a desire to extract a confession or information, and were discriminatory. Nothing less would suffice.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The next hurdle in this obstacle race is Clause 5, which requires that a court can entertain a complaint only if it is made within six months of the date of the offence. Victims of torture tend to be vulnerable people, who often need a lot of time to overcome the physical and psychological trauma, find support, organise resources and gather courage to make the complaint. As a general rule, criminal laws tend to prescribe no time limits whatsoever, let alone one as short as six months.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Finally, Clause 6 prohibits a court from taking cognisance of a complaint without the ever-elusive prior sanction to prosecute from the government. The Bill might as well be headed &amp;ldquo;Impunity for Torturers Bill&amp;rdquo;, for it is not meant to bring any torturer to book. It is designed to save our government from criticism in the international community and preserve the facade of a rights-respecting liberal democracy. In reality, it fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens. Rudyard Kipling said that the colonial government gave its subjects:&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;A time to squabble in court &amp;hellip;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Jails &amp;mdash; and Police to fight,&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Justice &amp;mdash; at length of days,&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;And Right &amp;mdash; and Might in the Right.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;This may well be true of democratic India.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;(The writer is a Fellow in Law, Christ Church, Oxford.)&lt;br /&gt;
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The Prevention of Torture Bill fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens.&amp;nbsp; 


Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;font &gt;&lt;em&gt;The Prevention of Torture Bill fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;&lt;em&gt;Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse to take notice&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;&lt;em&gt;A court can entertain a complaint under the proposed law only if it is made within six months of the date of the offence&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The right against &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/articles.php?articleId=56&amp;amp;pgno=2&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/articles.php?articleId=56&amp;amp;pgno=2&quot;&gt;torture&lt;/a&gt;, quite uniquely, admits to no exceptions whatsoever under international and comparative law. In practice, however, it remains one of the most frequently violated rights. The Minister of State for Home recently introduced the Prevention of Torture Bill in Lok Sabha, in order &amp;ldquo;to provide punishment for torture inflicted by public servants&amp;rdquo;. The main intention behind the Bill is to enable India to ratify the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. With 146 ratifications in place, India&#039;s continued failure to do so is a source of deep embarrassment and raises doubts over her claims to be a liberal democracy. Indeed, the chief motivation behind the Bill is to polish India&#039;s international image rather than to protect her citizens from torture.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Clause 3 of the Bill defines &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo; as an intentional act which causes &amp;ldquo;grievous hurt&amp;rdquo; or &amp;ldquo;danger to life, limb or health&amp;rdquo;. Grievous hurt is defined under Section 320 of the Indian Penal Code to include extremely serious injuries such as permanent loss of eye or ear, emasculation, bone fractures, or hurt which causes severe and debilitating pain for twenty days or more. In other words, a very high threshold has been set for an act to qualify as &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo;.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Even the &amp;ldquo;danger to (mental or physical) health&amp;rdquo; provision is not very helpful. The term &amp;ldquo;danger&amp;rdquo; implies a certain level of seriousness, while mental and physical &amp;ldquo;health&amp;rdquo; has frequently been interpreted by courts in civil cases to only include medically recognised illnesses. Given the general rule that criminal laws are interpreted strictly, courts are likely to err on the side of the accused and demand a high threshold for &amp;ldquo;danger to health&amp;rdquo;. The &amp;ldquo;danger to health&amp;rdquo; standard must also be contrasted with the definition of &amp;ldquo;hurt&amp;rdquo; in the Indian Penal Code, which simply includes &amp;ldquo;bodily pain&amp;rdquo;. Similarly, Article 1(1) of the U.N. Convention defines &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo; as the intentional infliction of &amp;ldquo;severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental&amp;rdquo;.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Most reasonable people would agree with the Convention that torture must be understood primarily in terms of the pain that it inflicts, rather than any long-term impact. But, the Bill is likely to be interpreted so that acts that cause severe pain without causing any lasting damage to a person&#039;s health may not amount to torture. Thus, many cases of water-boarding, sexual assault, deprivation of food, water or sleep, whipping, rubbing chillies on sensitive body parts and other such barbaric acts readily condemned by most reasonable people may not amount to &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo; under the proposed Bill. As if this definitional ambiguity was not bad enough, the Bill is cynically silent on &amp;ldquo;other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment&amp;rdquo;, whose prohibition is an essential requirement under the U.N. Convention.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;To make matters worse, Clause 4 of the Bill lays down that even if an act qualifies as &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo;, it will be punishable only if it was committed &amp;ldquo;for the purpose of extorting ... any confession or any information which may lead to the detection of an offence...; and on the ground of [a person&#039;s] religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste or community or any other ground...&amp;rdquo;. So, if a police officer breaks a few bones in order to intimidate a person, to extort money, to &amp;ldquo;teach her a lesson&amp;rdquo;, or for no reason whatsoever, he cannot be punished under this bizarre Bill. Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse to take notice.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;But even if this was indeed the case, there is yet another condition to satisfy &amp;mdash; the victim must, in addition, show that the torture was based on some form of discrimination. It is true that many people are routinely tortured in India merely for being Dalit, Muslim, tribal or hijra. But the correct response is the formula in the U.N. Convention, which prohibits torture &amp;ldquo;for any reason based on discrimination of any kind&amp;rdquo; as an independent, rather than an additional, ingredient of torture. Thus, the Bill only punishes those acts of torture which result in a very serious injury, were motivated by a desire to extract a confession or information, and were discriminatory. Nothing less would suffice.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The next hurdle in this obstacle race is Clause 5, which requires that a court can entertain a complaint only if it is made within six months of the date of the offence. Victims of torture tend to be vulnerable people, who often need a lot of time to overcome the physical and psychological trauma, find support, organise resources and gather courage to make the complaint. As a general rule, criminal laws tend to prescribe no time limits whatsoever, let alone one as short as six months.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Finally, Clause 6 prohibits a court from taking cognisance of a complaint without the ever-elusive prior sanction to prosecute from the government. The Bill might as well be headed &amp;ldquo;Impunity for Torturers Bill&amp;rdquo;, for it is not meant to bring any torturer to book. It is designed to save our government from criticism in the international community and preserve the facade of a rights-respecting liberal democracy. In reality, it fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens. Rudyard Kipling said that the colonial government gave its subjects:&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;A time to squabble in court &amp;hellip;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Jails &amp;mdash; and Police to fight,&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Justice &amp;mdash; at length of days,&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;And Right &amp;mdash; and Might in the Right.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;This may well be true of democratic India.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;&lt;em&gt;(The writer is a Fellow in Law, Christ Church, Oxford.)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;,
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	&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 1846,
	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;A Bill designed to fail by Tarunabh Khaitan&#039;,
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	&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Prevention of Torture Bill fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse to take notice&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;A court can entertain a complaint under the proposed law only if it is made within six months of the date of the offence&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The right against &lt;a href=&quot;../articles.php?articleId=56&amp;amp;pgno=2&quot;&gt;torture&lt;/a&gt;, quite uniquely, admits to no exceptions whatsoever under international and comparative law. In practice, however, it remains one of the most frequently violated rights. The Minister of State for Home recently introduced the Prevention of Torture Bill in Lok Sabha, in order &amp;ldquo;to provide punishment for torture inflicted by public servants&amp;rdquo;. The main intention behind the Bill is to enable India to ratify the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. With 146 ratifications in place, India&#039;s continued failure to do so is a source of deep embarrassment and raises doubts over her claims to be a liberal democracy. Indeed, the chief motivation behind the Bill is to polish India&#039;s international image rather than to protect her citizens from torture.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Clause 3 of the Bill defines &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo; as an intentional act which causes &amp;ldquo;grievous hurt&amp;rdquo; or &amp;ldquo;danger to life, limb or health&amp;rdquo;. Grievous hurt is defined under Section 320 of the Indian Penal Code to include extremely serious injuries such as permanent loss of eye or ear, emasculation, bone fractures, or hurt which causes severe and debilitating pain for twenty days or more. In other words, a very high threshold has been set for an act to qualify as &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo;.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Even the &amp;ldquo;danger to (mental or physical) health&amp;rdquo; provision is not very helpful. The term &amp;ldquo;danger&amp;rdquo; implies a certain level of seriousness, while mental and physical &amp;ldquo;health&amp;rdquo; has frequently been interpreted by courts in civil cases to only include medically recognised illnesses. Given the general rule that criminal laws are interpreted strictly, courts are likely to err on the side of the accused and demand a high threshold for &amp;ldquo;danger to health&amp;rdquo;. The &amp;ldquo;danger to health&amp;rdquo; standard must also be contrasted with the definition of &amp;ldquo;hurt&amp;rdquo; in the Indian Penal Code, which simply includes &amp;ldquo;bodily pain&amp;rdquo;. Similarly, Article 1(1) of the U.N. Convention defines &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo; as the intentional infliction of &amp;ldquo;severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental&amp;rdquo;.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Most reasonable people would agree with the Convention that torture must be understood primarily in terms of the pain that it inflicts, rather than any long-term impact. But, the Bill is likely to be interpreted so that acts that cause severe pain without causing any lasting damage to a person&#039;s health may not amount to torture. Thus, many cases of water-boarding, sexual assault, deprivation of food, water or sleep, whipping, rubbing chillies on sensitive body parts and other such barbaric acts readily condemned by most reasonable people may not amount to &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo; under the proposed Bill. As if this definitional ambiguity was not bad enough, the Bill is cynically silent on &amp;ldquo;other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment&amp;rdquo;, whose prohibition is an essential requirement under the U.N. Convention.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;To make matters worse, Clause 4 of the Bill lays down that even if an act qualifies as &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo;, it will be punishable only if it was committed &amp;ldquo;for the purpose of extorting ... any confession or any information which may lead to the detection of an offence...; and on the ground of [a person&#039;s] religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste or community or any other ground...&amp;rdquo;. So, if a police officer breaks a few bones in order to intimidate a person, to extort money, to &amp;ldquo;teach her a lesson&amp;rdquo;, or for no reason whatsoever, he cannot be punished under this bizarre Bill. Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse to take notice.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;But even if this was indeed the case, there is yet another condition to satisfy &amp;mdash; the victim must, in addition, show that the torture was based on some form of discrimination. It is true that many people are routinely tortured in India merely for being Dalit, Muslim, tribal or hijra. But the correct response is the formula in the U.N. Convention, which prohibits torture &amp;ldquo;for any reason based on discrimination of any kind&amp;rdquo; as an independent, rather than an additional, ingredient of torture. Thus, the Bill only punishes those acts of torture which result in a very serious injury, were motivated by a desire to extract a confession or information, and were discriminatory. Nothing less would suffice.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The next hurdle in this obstacle race is Clause 5, which requires that a court can entertain a complaint only if it is made within six months of the date of the offence. Victims of torture tend to be vulnerable people, who often need a lot of time to overcome the physical and psychological trauma, find support, organise resources and gather courage to make the complaint. As a general rule, criminal laws tend to prescribe no time limits whatsoever, let alone one as short as six months.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Finally, Clause 6 prohibits a court from taking cognisance of a complaint without the ever-elusive prior sanction to prosecute from the government. The Bill might as well be headed &amp;ldquo;Impunity for Torturers Bill&amp;rdquo;, for it is not meant to bring any torturer to book. It is designed to save our government from criticism in the international community and preserve the facade of a rights-respecting liberal democracy. In reality, it fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens. Rudyard Kipling said that the colonial government gave its subjects:&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;A time to squabble in court &amp;hellip;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Jails &amp;mdash; and Police to fight,&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Justice &amp;mdash; at length of days,&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;And Right &amp;mdash; and Might in the Right.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;This may well be true of democratic India.&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;(The writer is a Fellow in Law, Christ Church, Oxford.)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
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	&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;The Hindu, 19 May, 2010, http://www.hindu.com/2010/05/19/stories/2010051957251300.htm&#039;,
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$metaTitle = &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | A Bill designed to fail by Tarunabh Khaitan&#039;
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The Prevention of Torture Bill fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens.&amp;nbsp; 


Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;font &gt;&lt;em&gt;The Prevention of Torture Bill fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;&lt;em&gt;Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse to take notice&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;&lt;em&gt;A court can entertain a complaint under the proposed law only if it is made within six months of the date of the offence&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The right against &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/articles.php?articleId=56&amp;amp;pgno=2&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/articles.php?articleId=56&amp;amp;pgno=2&quot;&gt;torture&lt;/a&gt;, quite uniquely, admits to no exceptions whatsoever under international and comparative law. In practice, however, it remains one of the most frequently violated rights. The Minister of State for Home recently introduced the Prevention of Torture Bill in Lok Sabha, in order &amp;ldquo;to provide punishment for torture inflicted by public servants&amp;rdquo;. The main intention behind the Bill is to enable India to ratify the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. With 146 ratifications in place, India&#039;s continued failure to do so is a source of deep embarrassment and raises doubts over her claims to be a liberal democracy. Indeed, the chief motivation behind the Bill is to polish India&#039;s international image rather than to protect her citizens from torture.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Clause 3 of the Bill defines &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo; as an intentional act which causes &amp;ldquo;grievous hurt&amp;rdquo; or &amp;ldquo;danger to life, limb or health&amp;rdquo;. Grievous hurt is defined under Section 320 of the Indian Penal Code to include extremely serious injuries such as permanent loss of eye or ear, emasculation, bone fractures, or hurt which causes severe and debilitating pain for twenty days or more. In other words, a very high threshold has been set for an act to qualify as &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo;.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Even the &amp;ldquo;danger to (mental or physical) health&amp;rdquo; provision is not very helpful. The term &amp;ldquo;danger&amp;rdquo; implies a certain level of seriousness, while mental and physical &amp;ldquo;health&amp;rdquo; has frequently been interpreted by courts in civil cases to only include medically recognised illnesses. Given the general rule that criminal laws are interpreted strictly, courts are likely to err on the side of the accused and demand a high threshold for &amp;ldquo;danger to health&amp;rdquo;. The &amp;ldquo;danger to health&amp;rdquo; standard must also be contrasted with the definition of &amp;ldquo;hurt&amp;rdquo; in the Indian Penal Code, which simply includes &amp;ldquo;bodily pain&amp;rdquo;. Similarly, Article 1(1) of the U.N. Convention defines &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo; as the intentional infliction of &amp;ldquo;severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental&amp;rdquo;.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Most reasonable people would agree with the Convention that torture must be understood primarily in terms of the pain that it inflicts, rather than any long-term impact. But, the Bill is likely to be interpreted so that acts that cause severe pain without causing any lasting damage to a person&#039;s health may not amount to torture. Thus, many cases of water-boarding, sexual assault, deprivation of food, water or sleep, whipping, rubbing chillies on sensitive body parts and other such barbaric acts readily condemned by most reasonable people may not amount to &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo; under the proposed Bill. As if this definitional ambiguity was not bad enough, the Bill is cynically silent on &amp;ldquo;other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment&amp;rdquo;, whose prohibition is an essential requirement under the U.N. Convention.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;To make matters worse, Clause 4 of the Bill lays down that even if an act qualifies as &amp;ldquo;torture&amp;rdquo;, it will be punishable only if it was committed &amp;ldquo;for the purpose of extorting ... any confession or any information which may lead to the detection of an offence...; and on the ground of [a person&#039;s] religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste or community or any other ground...&amp;rdquo;. So, if a police officer breaks a few bones in order to intimidate a person, to extort money, to &amp;ldquo;teach her a lesson&amp;rdquo;, or for no reason whatsoever, he cannot be punished under this bizarre Bill. Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse to take notice.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;But even if this was indeed the case, there is yet another condition to satisfy &amp;mdash; the victim must, in addition, show that the torture was based on some form of discrimination. It is true that many people are routinely tortured in India merely for being Dalit, Muslim, tribal or hijra. But the correct response is the formula in the U.N. Convention, which prohibits torture &amp;ldquo;for any reason based on discrimination of any kind&amp;rdquo; as an independent, rather than an additional, ingredient of torture. Thus, the Bill only punishes those acts of torture which result in a very serious injury, were motivated by a desire to extract a confession or information, and were discriminatory. Nothing less would suffice.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The next hurdle in this obstacle race is Clause 5, which requires that a court can entertain a complaint only if it is made within six months of the date of the offence. Victims of torture tend to be vulnerable people, who often need a lot of time to overcome the physical and psychological trauma, find support, organise resources and gather courage to make the complaint. As a general rule, criminal laws tend to prescribe no time limits whatsoever, let alone one as short as six months.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Finally, Clause 6 prohibits a court from taking cognisance of a complaint without the ever-elusive prior sanction to prosecute from the government. The Bill might as well be headed &amp;ldquo;Impunity for Torturers Bill&amp;rdquo;, for it is not meant to bring any torturer to book. It is designed to save our government from criticism in the international community and preserve the facade of a rights-respecting liberal democracy. In reality, it fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens. Rudyard Kipling said that the colonial government gave its subjects:&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;A time to squabble in court &amp;hellip;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Jails &amp;mdash; and Police to fight,&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Justice &amp;mdash; at length of days,&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;And Right &amp;mdash; and Might in the Right.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;This may well be true of democratic India.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;&lt;em&gt;(The writer is a Fellow in Law, Christ Church, Oxford.)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;
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                <strong>A Bill designed to fail by Tarunabh Khaitan</strong></h1>
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                <p align="justify"><br /><font ><em>The Prevention of Torture Bill fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens.&nbsp; </em></font></p><p align="justify"><font ><em>Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse to take notice</em></font></p><p align="justify"><font ><em>A court can entertain a complaint under the proposed law only if it is made within six months of the date of the offence</em></font></p><p align="justify"><font >The right against <a href="https://im4change.in/articles.php?articleId=56&amp;pgno=2" title="https://im4change.in/articles.php?articleId=56&amp;pgno=2">torture</a>, quite uniquely, admits to no exceptions whatsoever under international and comparative law. In practice, however, it remains one of the most frequently violated rights. The Minister of State for Home recently introduced the Prevention of Torture Bill in Lok Sabha, in order &ldquo;to provide punishment for torture inflicted by public servants&rdquo;. The main intention behind the Bill is to enable India to ratify the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. With 146 ratifications in place, India's continued failure to do so is a source of deep embarrassment and raises doubts over her claims to be a liberal democracy. Indeed, the chief motivation behind the Bill is to polish India's international image rather than to protect her citizens from torture.</font></p><p align="justify"><font >Clause 3 of the Bill defines &ldquo;torture&rdquo; as an intentional act which causes &ldquo;grievous hurt&rdquo; or &ldquo;danger to life, limb or health&rdquo;. Grievous hurt is defined under Section 320 of the Indian Penal Code to include extremely serious injuries such as permanent loss of eye or ear, emasculation, bone fractures, or hurt which causes severe and debilitating pain for twenty days or more. In other words, a very high threshold has been set for an act to qualify as &ldquo;torture&rdquo;.</font></p><p align="justify"><font >Even the &ldquo;danger to (mental or physical) health&rdquo; provision is not very helpful. The term &ldquo;danger&rdquo; implies a certain level of seriousness, while mental and physical &ldquo;health&rdquo; has frequently been interpreted by courts in civil cases to only include medically recognised illnesses. Given the general rule that criminal laws are interpreted strictly, courts are likely to err on the side of the accused and demand a high threshold for &ldquo;danger to health&rdquo;. The &ldquo;danger to health&rdquo; standard must also be contrasted with the definition of &ldquo;hurt&rdquo; in the Indian Penal Code, which simply includes &ldquo;bodily pain&rdquo;. Similarly, Article 1(1) of the U.N. Convention defines &ldquo;torture&rdquo; as the intentional infliction of &ldquo;severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental&rdquo;.</font></p><p align="justify"><font >Most reasonable people would agree with the Convention that torture must be understood primarily in terms of the pain that it inflicts, rather than any long-term impact. But, the Bill is likely to be interpreted so that acts that cause severe pain without causing any lasting damage to a person's health may not amount to torture. Thus, many cases of water-boarding, sexual assault, deprivation of food, water or sleep, whipping, rubbing chillies on sensitive body parts and other such barbaric acts readily condemned by most reasonable people may not amount to &ldquo;torture&rdquo; under the proposed Bill. As if this definitional ambiguity was not bad enough, the Bill is cynically silent on &ldquo;other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment&rdquo;, whose prohibition is an essential requirement under the U.N. Convention.</font></p><p align="justify"><font >To make matters worse, Clause 4 of the Bill lays down that even if an act qualifies as &ldquo;torture&rdquo;, it will be punishable only if it was committed &ldquo;for the purpose of extorting ... any confession or any information which may lead to the detection of an offence...; and on the ground of [a person's] religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste or community or any other ground...&rdquo;. So, if a police officer breaks a few bones in order to intimidate a person, to extort money, to &ldquo;teach her a lesson&rdquo;, or for no reason whatsoever, he cannot be punished under this bizarre Bill. Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse to take notice.</font></p><p align="justify"><font >But even if this was indeed the case, there is yet another condition to satisfy &mdash; the victim must, in addition, show that the torture was based on some form of discrimination. It is true that many people are routinely tortured in India merely for being Dalit, Muslim, tribal or hijra. But the correct response is the formula in the U.N. Convention, which prohibits torture &ldquo;for any reason based on discrimination of any kind&rdquo; as an independent, rather than an additional, ingredient of torture. Thus, the Bill only punishes those acts of torture which result in a very serious injury, were motivated by a desire to extract a confession or information, and were discriminatory. Nothing less would suffice.</font></p><p align="justify"><font >The next hurdle in this obstacle race is Clause 5, which requires that a court can entertain a complaint only if it is made within six months of the date of the offence. Victims of torture tend to be vulnerable people, who often need a lot of time to overcome the physical and psychological trauma, find support, organise resources and gather courage to make the complaint. As a general rule, criminal laws tend to prescribe no time limits whatsoever, let alone one as short as six months.</font></p><p align="justify"><font >Finally, Clause 6 prohibits a court from taking cognisance of a complaint without the ever-elusive prior sanction to prosecute from the government. The Bill might as well be headed &ldquo;Impunity for Torturers Bill&rdquo;, for it is not meant to bring any torturer to book. It is designed to save our government from criticism in the international community and preserve the facade of a rights-respecting liberal democracy. In reality, it fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens. Rudyard Kipling said that the colonial government gave its subjects:</font></p><p align="justify"><font >A time to squabble in court &hellip;</font></p><p align="justify"><font >Jails &mdash; and Police to fight,</font></p><p align="justify"><font >Justice &mdash; at length of days,</font></p><p align="justify"><font >And Right &mdash; and Might in the Right.</font></p><p align="justify"><font >This may well be true of democratic India.</font></p><p align="justify"><font ><em>(The writer is a Fellow in Law, Christ Church, Oxford.)<br /></em></font></p>               </font>
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<br />
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3"><em>The Prevention of Torture Bill fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens.&nbsp; </em></font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3"><em>Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse to take notice</em></font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3"><em>A court can entertain a complaint under the proposed law only if it is made within six months of the date of the offence</em></font>
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<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">The right against <a href="../articles.php?articleId=56&amp;pgno=2">torture</a>, quite uniquely, admits to no exceptions whatsoever under international and comparative law. In practice, however, it remains one of the most frequently violated rights. The Minister of State for Home recently introduced the Prevention of Torture Bill in Lok Sabha, in order &ldquo;to provide punishment for torture inflicted by public servants&rdquo;. The main intention behind the Bill is to enable India to ratify the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. With 146 ratifications in place, India's continued failure to do so is a source of deep embarrassment and raises doubts over her claims to be a liberal democracy. Indeed, the chief motivation behind the Bill is to polish India's international image rather than to protect her citizens from torture.</font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">Clause 3 of the Bill defines &ldquo;torture&rdquo; as an intentional act which causes &ldquo;grievous hurt&rdquo; or &ldquo;danger to life, limb or health&rdquo;. Grievous hurt is defined under Section 320 of the Indian Penal Code to include extremely serious injuries such as permanent loss of eye or ear, emasculation, bone fractures, or hurt which causes severe and debilitating pain for twenty days or more. In other words, a very high threshold has been set for an act to qualify as &ldquo;torture&rdquo;.</font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">Even the &ldquo;danger to (mental or physical) health&rdquo; provision is not very helpful. The term &ldquo;danger&rdquo; implies a certain level of seriousness, while mental and physical &ldquo;health&rdquo; has frequently been interpreted by courts in civil cases to only include medically recognised illnesses. Given the general rule that criminal laws are interpreted strictly, courts are likely to err on the side of the accused and demand a high threshold for &ldquo;danger to health&rdquo;. The &ldquo;danger to health&rdquo; standard must also be contrasted with the definition of &ldquo;hurt&rdquo; in the Indian Penal Code, which simply includes &ldquo;bodily pain&rdquo;. Similarly, Article 1(1) of the U.N. Convention defines &ldquo;torture&rdquo; as the intentional infliction of &ldquo;severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental&rdquo;.</font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">Most reasonable people would agree with the Convention that torture must be understood primarily in terms of the pain that it inflicts, rather than any long-term impact. But, the Bill is likely to be interpreted so that acts that cause severe pain without causing any lasting damage to a person's health may not amount to torture. Thus, many cases of water-boarding, sexual assault, deprivation of food, water or sleep, whipping, rubbing chillies on sensitive body parts and other such barbaric acts readily condemned by most reasonable people may not amount to &ldquo;torture&rdquo; under the proposed Bill. As if this definitional ambiguity was not bad enough, the Bill is cynically silent on &ldquo;other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment&rdquo;, whose prohibition is an essential requirement under the U.N. Convention.</font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">To make matters worse, Clause 4 of the Bill lays down that even if an act qualifies as &ldquo;torture&rdquo;, it will be punishable only if it was committed &ldquo;for the purpose of extorting ... any confession or any information which may lead to the detection of an offence...; and on the ground of [a person's] religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste or community or any other ground...&rdquo;. So, if a police officer breaks a few bones in order to intimidate a person, to extort money, to &ldquo;teach her a lesson&rdquo;, or for no reason whatsoever, he cannot be punished under this bizarre Bill. Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse to take notice.</font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">But even if this was indeed the case, there is yet another condition to satisfy &mdash; the victim must, in addition, show that the torture was based on some form of discrimination. It is true that many people are routinely tortured in India merely for being Dalit, Muslim, tribal or hijra. But the correct response is the formula in the U.N. Convention, which prohibits torture &ldquo;for any reason based on discrimination of any kind&rdquo; as an independent, rather than an additional, ingredient of torture. Thus, the Bill only punishes those acts of torture which result in a very serious injury, were motivated by a desire to extract a confession or information, and were discriminatory. Nothing less would suffice.</font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">The next hurdle in this obstacle race is Clause 5, which requires that a court can entertain a complaint only if it is made within six months of the date of the offence. Victims of torture tend to be vulnerable people, who often need a lot of time to overcome the physical and psychological trauma, find support, organise resources and gather courage to make the complaint. As a general rule, criminal laws tend to prescribe no time limits whatsoever, let alone one as short as six months.</font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">Finally, Clause 6 prohibits a court from taking cognisance of a complaint without the ever-elusive prior sanction to prosecute from the government. The Bill might as well be headed &ldquo;Impunity for Torturers Bill&rdquo;, for it is not meant to bring any torturer to book. It is designed to save our government from criticism in the international community and preserve the facade of a rights-respecting liberal democracy. In reality, it fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens. Rudyard Kipling said that the colonial government gave its subjects:</font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">A time to squabble in court &hellip;</font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">Jails &mdash; and Police to fight,</font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">Justice &mdash; at length of days,</font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">And Right &mdash; and Might in the Right.</font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">This may well be true of democratic India.</font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3"><em>(The writer is a Fellow in Law, Christ Church, Oxford.)<br />
</em></font>
</p>
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The Prevention of Torture Bill fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens.&nbsp; 


Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse...',
	'disp' => '<p align="justify"><br /><font ><em>The Prevention of Torture Bill fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens.&nbsp; </em></font></p><p align="justify"><font ><em>Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse to take notice</em></font></p><p align="justify"><font ><em>A court can entertain a complaint under the proposed law only if it is made within six months of the date of the offence</em></font></p><p align="justify"><font >The right against <a href="https://im4change.in/articles.php?articleId=56&amp;pgno=2" title="https://im4change.in/articles.php?articleId=56&amp;pgno=2">torture</a>, quite uniquely, admits to no exceptions whatsoever under international and comparative law. In practice, however, it remains one of the most frequently violated rights. The Minister of State for Home recently introduced the Prevention of Torture Bill in Lok Sabha, in order &ldquo;to provide punishment for torture inflicted by public servants&rdquo;. The main intention behind the Bill is to enable India to ratify the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. With 146 ratifications in place, India's continued failure to do so is a source of deep embarrassment and raises doubts over her claims to be a liberal democracy. Indeed, the chief motivation behind the Bill is to polish India's international image rather than to protect her citizens from torture.</font></p><p align="justify"><font >Clause 3 of the Bill defines &ldquo;torture&rdquo; as an intentional act which causes &ldquo;grievous hurt&rdquo; or &ldquo;danger to life, limb or health&rdquo;. Grievous hurt is defined under Section 320 of the Indian Penal Code to include extremely serious injuries such as permanent loss of eye or ear, emasculation, bone fractures, or hurt which causes severe and debilitating pain for twenty days or more. In other words, a very high threshold has been set for an act to qualify as &ldquo;torture&rdquo;.</font></p><p align="justify"><font >Even the &ldquo;danger to (mental or physical) health&rdquo; provision is not very helpful. The term &ldquo;danger&rdquo; implies a certain level of seriousness, while mental and physical &ldquo;health&rdquo; has frequently been interpreted by courts in civil cases to only include medically recognised illnesses. Given the general rule that criminal laws are interpreted strictly, courts are likely to err on the side of the accused and demand a high threshold for &ldquo;danger to health&rdquo;. The &ldquo;danger to health&rdquo; standard must also be contrasted with the definition of &ldquo;hurt&rdquo; in the Indian Penal Code, which simply includes &ldquo;bodily pain&rdquo;. Similarly, Article 1(1) of the U.N. Convention defines &ldquo;torture&rdquo; as the intentional infliction of &ldquo;severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental&rdquo;.</font></p><p align="justify"><font >Most reasonable people would agree with the Convention that torture must be understood primarily in terms of the pain that it inflicts, rather than any long-term impact. But, the Bill is likely to be interpreted so that acts that cause severe pain without causing any lasting damage to a person's health may not amount to torture. Thus, many cases of water-boarding, sexual assault, deprivation of food, water or sleep, whipping, rubbing chillies on sensitive body parts and other such barbaric acts readily condemned by most reasonable people may not amount to &ldquo;torture&rdquo; under the proposed Bill. As if this definitional ambiguity was not bad enough, the Bill is cynically silent on &ldquo;other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment&rdquo;, whose prohibition is an essential requirement under the U.N. Convention.</font></p><p align="justify"><font >To make matters worse, Clause 4 of the Bill lays down that even if an act qualifies as &ldquo;torture&rdquo;, it will be punishable only if it was committed &ldquo;for the purpose of extorting ... any confession or any information which may lead to the detection of an offence...; and on the ground of [a person's] religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste or community or any other ground...&rdquo;. So, if a police officer breaks a few bones in order to intimidate a person, to extort money, to &ldquo;teach her a lesson&rdquo;, or for no reason whatsoever, he cannot be punished under this bizarre Bill. Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse to take notice.</font></p><p align="justify"><font >But even if this was indeed the case, there is yet another condition to satisfy &mdash; the victim must, in addition, show that the torture was based on some form of discrimination. It is true that many people are routinely tortured in India merely for being Dalit, Muslim, tribal or hijra. But the correct response is the formula in the U.N. Convention, which prohibits torture &ldquo;for any reason based on discrimination of any kind&rdquo; as an independent, rather than an additional, ingredient of torture. Thus, the Bill only punishes those acts of torture which result in a very serious injury, were motivated by a desire to extract a confession or information, and were discriminatory. Nothing less would suffice.</font></p><p align="justify"><font >The next hurdle in this obstacle race is Clause 5, which requires that a court can entertain a complaint only if it is made within six months of the date of the offence. Victims of torture tend to be vulnerable people, who often need a lot of time to overcome the physical and psychological trauma, find support, organise resources and gather courage to make the complaint. As a general rule, criminal laws tend to prescribe no time limits whatsoever, let alone one as short as six months.</font></p><p align="justify"><font >Finally, Clause 6 prohibits a court from taking cognisance of a complaint without the ever-elusive prior sanction to prosecute from the government. The Bill might as well be headed &ldquo;Impunity for Torturers Bill&rdquo;, for it is not meant to bring any torturer to book. It is designed to save our government from criticism in the international community and preserve the facade of a rights-respecting liberal democracy. In reality, it fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens. Rudyard Kipling said that the colonial government gave its subjects:</font></p><p align="justify"><font >A time to squabble in court &hellip;</font></p><p align="justify"><font >Jails &mdash; and Police to fight,</font></p><p align="justify"><font >Justice &mdash; at length of days,</font></p><p align="justify"><font >And Right &mdash; and Might in the Right.</font></p><p align="justify"><font >This may well be true of democratic India.</font></p><p align="justify"><font ><em>(The writer is a Fellow in Law, Christ Church, Oxford.)<br /></em></font></p>',
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<br />
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3"><em>The Prevention of Torture Bill fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens.&nbsp; </em></font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3"><em>Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse to take notice</em></font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3"><em>A court can entertain a complaint under the proposed law only if it is made within six months of the date of the offence</em></font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">The right against <a href="../articles.php?articleId=56&amp;pgno=2">torture</a>, quite uniquely, admits to no exceptions whatsoever under international and comparative law. In practice, however, it remains one of the most frequently violated rights. The Minister of State for Home recently introduced the Prevention of Torture Bill in Lok Sabha, in order &ldquo;to provide punishment for torture inflicted by public servants&rdquo;. The main intention behind the Bill is to enable India to ratify the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. With 146 ratifications in place, India's continued failure to do so is a source of deep embarrassment and raises doubts over her claims to be a liberal democracy. Indeed, the chief motivation behind the Bill is to polish India's international image rather than to protect her citizens from torture.</font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">Clause 3 of the Bill defines &ldquo;torture&rdquo; as an intentional act which causes &ldquo;grievous hurt&rdquo; or &ldquo;danger to life, limb or health&rdquo;. Grievous hurt is defined under Section 320 of the Indian Penal Code to include extremely serious injuries such as permanent loss of eye or ear, emasculation, bone fractures, or hurt which causes severe and debilitating pain for twenty days or more. In other words, a very high threshold has been set for an act to qualify as &ldquo;torture&rdquo;.</font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">Even the &ldquo;danger to (mental or physical) health&rdquo; provision is not very helpful. The term &ldquo;danger&rdquo; implies a certain level of seriousness, while mental and physical &ldquo;health&rdquo; has frequently been interpreted by courts in civil cases to only include medically recognised illnesses. Given the general rule that criminal laws are interpreted strictly, courts are likely to err on the side of the accused and demand a high threshold for &ldquo;danger to health&rdquo;. The &ldquo;danger to health&rdquo; standard must also be contrasted with the definition of &ldquo;hurt&rdquo; in the Indian Penal Code, which simply includes &ldquo;bodily pain&rdquo;. Similarly, Article 1(1) of the U.N. Convention defines &ldquo;torture&rdquo; as the intentional infliction of &ldquo;severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental&rdquo;.</font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">Most reasonable people would agree with the Convention that torture must be understood primarily in terms of the pain that it inflicts, rather than any long-term impact. But, the Bill is likely to be interpreted so that acts that cause severe pain without causing any lasting damage to a person's health may not amount to torture. Thus, many cases of water-boarding, sexual assault, deprivation of food, water or sleep, whipping, rubbing chillies on sensitive body parts and other such barbaric acts readily condemned by most reasonable people may not amount to &ldquo;torture&rdquo; under the proposed Bill. As if this definitional ambiguity was not bad enough, the Bill is cynically silent on &ldquo;other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment&rdquo;, whose prohibition is an essential requirement under the U.N. Convention.</font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">To make matters worse, Clause 4 of the Bill lays down that even if an act qualifies as &ldquo;torture&rdquo;, it will be punishable only if it was committed &ldquo;for the purpose of extorting ... any confession or any information which may lead to the detection of an offence...; and on the ground of [a person's] religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste or community or any other ground...&rdquo;. So, if a police officer breaks a few bones in order to intimidate a person, to extort money, to &ldquo;teach her a lesson&rdquo;, or for no reason whatsoever, he cannot be punished under this bizarre Bill. Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse to take notice.</font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">But even if this was indeed the case, there is yet another condition to satisfy &mdash; the victim must, in addition, show that the torture was based on some form of discrimination. It is true that many people are routinely tortured in India merely for being Dalit, Muslim, tribal or hijra. But the correct response is the formula in the U.N. Convention, which prohibits torture &ldquo;for any reason based on discrimination of any kind&rdquo; as an independent, rather than an additional, ingredient of torture. Thus, the Bill only punishes those acts of torture which result in a very serious injury, were motivated by a desire to extract a confession or information, and were discriminatory. Nothing less would suffice.</font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">The next hurdle in this obstacle race is Clause 5, which requires that a court can entertain a complaint only if it is made within six months of the date of the offence. Victims of torture tend to be vulnerable people, who often need a lot of time to overcome the physical and psychological trauma, find support, organise resources and gather courage to make the complaint. As a general rule, criminal laws tend to prescribe no time limits whatsoever, let alone one as short as six months.</font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">Finally, Clause 6 prohibits a court from taking cognisance of a complaint without the ever-elusive prior sanction to prosecute from the government. The Bill might as well be headed &ldquo;Impunity for Torturers Bill&rdquo;, for it is not meant to bring any torturer to book. It is designed to save our government from criticism in the international community and preserve the facade of a rights-respecting liberal democracy. In reality, it fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens. Rudyard Kipling said that the colonial government gave its subjects:</font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">A time to squabble in court &hellip;</font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">Jails &mdash; and Police to fight,</font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">Justice &mdash; at length of days,</font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">And Right &mdash; and Might in the Right.</font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">This may well be true of democratic India.</font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3"><em>(The writer is a Fellow in Law, Christ Church, Oxford.)<br />
</em></font>
</p>
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The Prevention of Torture Bill fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens.&nbsp; 


Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse...'
$disp = '<p align="justify"><br /><font ><em>The Prevention of Torture Bill fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens.&nbsp; </em></font></p><p align="justify"><font ><em>Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse to take notice</em></font></p><p align="justify"><font ><em>A court can entertain a complaint under the proposed law only if it is made within six months of the date of the offence</em></font></p><p align="justify"><font >The right against <a href="https://im4change.in/articles.php?articleId=56&amp;pgno=2" title="https://im4change.in/articles.php?articleId=56&amp;pgno=2">torture</a>, quite uniquely, admits to no exceptions whatsoever under international and comparative law. In practice, however, it remains one of the most frequently violated rights. The Minister of State for Home recently introduced the Prevention of Torture Bill in Lok Sabha, in order &ldquo;to provide punishment for torture inflicted by public servants&rdquo;. The main intention behind the Bill is to enable India to ratify the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. With 146 ratifications in place, India's continued failure to do so is a source of deep embarrassment and raises doubts over her claims to be a liberal democracy. Indeed, the chief motivation behind the Bill is to polish India's international image rather than to protect her citizens from torture.</font></p><p align="justify"><font >Clause 3 of the Bill defines &ldquo;torture&rdquo; as an intentional act which causes &ldquo;grievous hurt&rdquo; or &ldquo;danger to life, limb or health&rdquo;. Grievous hurt is defined under Section 320 of the Indian Penal Code to include extremely serious injuries such as permanent loss of eye or ear, emasculation, bone fractures, or hurt which causes severe and debilitating pain for twenty days or more. In other words, a very high threshold has been set for an act to qualify as &ldquo;torture&rdquo;.</font></p><p align="justify"><font >Even the &ldquo;danger to (mental or physical) health&rdquo; provision is not very helpful. The term &ldquo;danger&rdquo; implies a certain level of seriousness, while mental and physical &ldquo;health&rdquo; has frequently been interpreted by courts in civil cases to only include medically recognised illnesses. Given the general rule that criminal laws are interpreted strictly, courts are likely to err on the side of the accused and demand a high threshold for &ldquo;danger to health&rdquo;. The &ldquo;danger to health&rdquo; standard must also be contrasted with the definition of &ldquo;hurt&rdquo; in the Indian Penal Code, which simply includes &ldquo;bodily pain&rdquo;. Similarly, Article 1(1) of the U.N. Convention defines &ldquo;torture&rdquo; as the intentional infliction of &ldquo;severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental&rdquo;.</font></p><p align="justify"><font >Most reasonable people would agree with the Convention that torture must be understood primarily in terms of the pain that it inflicts, rather than any long-term impact. But, the Bill is likely to be interpreted so that acts that cause severe pain without causing any lasting damage to a person's health may not amount to torture. Thus, many cases of water-boarding, sexual assault, deprivation of food, water or sleep, whipping, rubbing chillies on sensitive body parts and other such barbaric acts readily condemned by most reasonable people may not amount to &ldquo;torture&rdquo; under the proposed Bill. As if this definitional ambiguity was not bad enough, the Bill is cynically silent on &ldquo;other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment&rdquo;, whose prohibition is an essential requirement under the U.N. Convention.</font></p><p align="justify"><font >To make matters worse, Clause 4 of the Bill lays down that even if an act qualifies as &ldquo;torture&rdquo;, it will be punishable only if it was committed &ldquo;for the purpose of extorting ... any confession or any information which may lead to the detection of an offence...; and on the ground of [a person's] religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste or community or any other ground...&rdquo;. So, if a police officer breaks a few bones in order to intimidate a person, to extort money, to &ldquo;teach her a lesson&rdquo;, or for no reason whatsoever, he cannot be punished under this bizarre Bill. Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse to take notice.</font></p><p align="justify"><font >But even if this was indeed the case, there is yet another condition to satisfy &mdash; the victim must, in addition, show that the torture was based on some form of discrimination. It is true that many people are routinely tortured in India merely for being Dalit, Muslim, tribal or hijra. But the correct response is the formula in the U.N. Convention, which prohibits torture &ldquo;for any reason based on discrimination of any kind&rdquo; as an independent, rather than an additional, ingredient of torture. Thus, the Bill only punishes those acts of torture which result in a very serious injury, were motivated by a desire to extract a confession or information, and were discriminatory. Nothing less would suffice.</font></p><p align="justify"><font >The next hurdle in this obstacle race is Clause 5, which requires that a court can entertain a complaint only if it is made within six months of the date of the offence. Victims of torture tend to be vulnerable people, who often need a lot of time to overcome the physical and psychological trauma, find support, organise resources and gather courage to make the complaint. As a general rule, criminal laws tend to prescribe no time limits whatsoever, let alone one as short as six months.</font></p><p align="justify"><font >Finally, Clause 6 prohibits a court from taking cognisance of a complaint without the ever-elusive prior sanction to prosecute from the government. The Bill might as well be headed &ldquo;Impunity for Torturers Bill&rdquo;, for it is not meant to bring any torturer to book. It is designed to save our government from criticism in the international community and preserve the facade of a rights-respecting liberal democracy. In reality, it fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens. Rudyard Kipling said that the colonial government gave its subjects:</font></p><p align="justify"><font >A time to squabble in court &hellip;</font></p><p align="justify"><font >Jails &mdash; and Police to fight,</font></p><p align="justify"><font >Justice &mdash; at length of days,</font></p><p align="justify"><font >And Right &mdash; and Might in the Right.</font></p><p align="justify"><font >This may well be true of democratic India.</font></p><p align="justify"><font ><em>(The writer is a Fellow in Law, Christ Church, Oxford.)<br /></em></font></p>'
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A Bill designed to fail by Tarunabh Khaitan

The Prevention of Torture Bill fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens.  Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse to take notice A court can entertain a complaint under the proposed law only if it is made within six months of the date of the offence The right against torture, quite uniquely, admits to no exceptions whatsoever under international and comparative law. In practice, however, it remains one of the most frequently violated rights. The Minister of State for Home recently introduced the Prevention of Torture Bill in Lok Sabha, in order “to provide punishment for torture inflicted by public servants”. The main intention behind the Bill is to enable India to ratify the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. With 146 ratifications in place, India's continued failure to do so is a source of deep embarrassment and raises doubts over her claims to be a liberal democracy. Indeed, the chief motivation behind the Bill is to polish India's international image rather than to protect her citizens from torture. Clause 3 of the Bill defines “torture” as an intentional act which causes “grievous hurt” or “danger to life, limb or health”. Grievous hurt is defined under Section 320 of the Indian Penal Code to include extremely serious injuries such as permanent loss of eye or ear, emasculation, bone fractures, or hurt which causes severe and debilitating pain for twenty days or more. In other words, a very high threshold has been set for an act to qualify as “torture”. Even the “danger to (mental or physical) health” provision is not very helpful. The term “danger” implies a certain level of seriousness, while mental and physical “health” has frequently been interpreted by courts in civil cases to only include medically recognised illnesses. Given the general rule that criminal laws are interpreted strictly, courts are likely to err on the side of the accused and demand a high threshold for “danger to health”. The “danger to health” standard must also be contrasted with the definition of “hurt” in the Indian Penal Code, which simply includes “bodily pain”. Similarly, Article 1(1) of the U.N. Convention defines “torture” as the intentional infliction of “severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental”. Most reasonable people would agree with the Convention that torture must be understood primarily in terms of the pain that it inflicts, rather than any long-term impact. But, the Bill is likely to be interpreted so that acts that cause severe pain without causing any lasting damage to a person's health may not amount to torture. Thus, many cases of water-boarding, sexual assault, deprivation of food, water or sleep, whipping, rubbing chillies on sensitive body parts and other such barbaric acts readily condemned by most reasonable people may not amount to “torture” under the proposed Bill. As if this definitional ambiguity was not bad enough, the Bill is cynically silent on “other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”, whose prohibition is an essential requirement under the U.N. Convention. To make matters worse, Clause 4 of the Bill lays down that even if an act qualifies as “torture”, it will be punishable only if it was committed “for the purpose of extorting ... any confession or any information which may lead to the detection of an offence...; and on the ground of [a person's] religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste or community or any other ground...”. So, if a police officer breaks a few bones in order to intimidate a person, to extort money, to “teach her a lesson”, or for no reason whatsoever, he cannot be punished under this bizarre Bill. Unless torture is inflicted for the purpose of extracting some information, the proposed law will refuse to take notice. But even if this was indeed the case, there is yet another condition to satisfy — the victim must, in addition, show that the torture was based on some form of discrimination. It is true that many people are routinely tortured in India merely for being Dalit, Muslim, tribal or hijra. But the correct response is the formula in the U.N. Convention, which prohibits torture “for any reason based on discrimination of any kind” as an independent, rather than an additional, ingredient of torture. Thus, the Bill only punishes those acts of torture which result in a very serious injury, were motivated by a desire to extract a confession or information, and were discriminatory. Nothing less would suffice. The next hurdle in this obstacle race is Clause 5, which requires that a court can entertain a complaint only if it is made within six months of the date of the offence. Victims of torture tend to be vulnerable people, who often need a lot of time to overcome the physical and psychological trauma, find support, organise resources and gather courage to make the complaint. As a general rule, criminal laws tend to prescribe no time limits whatsoever, let alone one as short as six months. Finally, Clause 6 prohibits a court from taking cognisance of a complaint without the ever-elusive prior sanction to prosecute from the government. The Bill might as well be headed “Impunity for Torturers Bill”, for it is not meant to bring any torturer to book. It is designed to save our government from criticism in the international community and preserve the facade of a rights-respecting liberal democracy. In reality, it fails to meet the minimum standards laid down in international law and betrays a contemptuous attitude towards Indian citizens. Rudyard Kipling said that the colonial government gave its subjects: A time to squabble in court … Jails — and Police to fight, Justice — at length of days, And Right — and Might in the Right. This may well be true of democratic India. (The writer is a Fellow in Law, Christ Church, Oxford.)