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HANDCUFFING : MORALLY OR ETHICALLY

JUSTIFIED OR NOT ?





SUBJECT TITLE: - LAW AND SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION

SUBMITTED TO: - Asst. Prof. Sachin Sharma
SUBMITTED BY: - Shruti Kaushal

2
nd
Year (4
th
semester)
BBA.LLB. (Hons.)
Mats Law School
Mats University, Raipur

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ACKNOWLEDGENT

I am deeply indebted to Mr. Sachain Sharma, Assistant Professor, MATS Law School,
MATS University, Raipur for constantly guiding and encouraging me to undertake and complete
this project. I am thankful for his patient disposition.
I am also thankful to Dr G.P. Tripathi, Director, and all other staff of the MATS Law
School, MATS University, Raipur for giving me opportunity and facility to complete this work.

Shruti Kaushal
4
th
Semester, B.B.A-LLB
MU12BBALLB24




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DECLARATION
I, Shruti Kaushal, undersigned hereby declare that this research report on Handcuffing:
Morally Or Ethically Justified Or Not ? was compiled and submitted by me is an original
work conducted under the guidance of Asst. Prof. Mr. Sachain Sharma. It is a work
done by me as a partial fulfillment of the BBA LLB.(Hons). No part of this work will be
published or copied for any purpose.












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Contents
ACKNOWLEDGENT ....................................................................................................................... 2
DECLARATION ............................................................................................................................... 3
INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................. 6
PROBLEM ........................................................................................................................................... 6
Reasoning Behind The Need Of Transformation In Laws Regarding Handcuffing ............................ 7
It is against the human rights as well as constitutional rights .......................................................... 8
CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................................... 9


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INTRODUCTION
The condition of confinement of prisoners in todays jail has damaged the principles of
morality and ethics. According to the theory of Justice given by John Rawls principles on
which delivery of justice is based include moral conception and political conception. This
moral conception has been damaged by police as using excessive force is damaging the
dignity of an individual. According to thinkers of Natural Law, the right to dignity of a
person is inalienable right which cannot be taken away by anyone in any circumstances.
Therefore, there is need to have a critical check on the action of white collar officers so as
to provide the security and protection of rights of the prisoners and save the existence of
morality and ethics, the most important principles or we can say the pillar on which the
delivery of justice is based.
PROBLEM
Police Authorities are required to perform various duties such as maintenance of law and
order in the society, prevention of crime and surveillance of criminals but now a days
there have been several cases reported from which we will find that just for their
convenience they use handcuffing as a medium to detain criminals which is not only very
inhuman act but also illegal. In India illegal practice of handcuffing by the police
authorities is still prevailing. In south, especially it is very common. Recently Madurai
Courts ordered two constables to pay Rs. 5000 each for compensating for handcuffing a
detainee without permission from the judicial committee. There have been several other
cases reported on it like a person was dead because he was left handcuffed by the traffic
Police on an highway. In may 2007, Wisconsin official shoot in the head of a man who
was handcuffed which lead to wrongful death of that person. Despite being that the
Honble Supreme Court in the case of Sunil Batra v Delhi Administration II (1980)
reiterated that handcuffs and iron bars be speaks a barbarity hostile to our goal of human
dignity and social justice, the inhuman treatment of the prisoners in jail as well as under
trial is continues. Further in Citizens of Democracy v State of Assam courts issued some
guideline to police authorities regarding their power to handcuff a person. Thus, the
judgment helped us to know that in which circumstances the handcuffing became illegal.
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Reasoning Behind The Need Of Transformation In Laws Regarding
Handcuffing
The issue of handcuffing is very serious and it needs to addressed. Prisoners are human
beings and therefore they retain their rights even when in prison. This is so because human
rights are universal. This means that every person, including a prisoner, has human rights,
no matter who is he/she, where is he/she lives or his/her class, race, sex, age, social status,
etc. Also human rights are said to be inalienable. This means that they cannot be taken
away from a person, including a prisoner. Bentham has said that no rights are absolute.
This means that the enjoyment of human rights may be restricted or limited by the
sovereign authority in certain circumstances. For example all people have the right to
liberty, right to practice any profession, occupation, trade and commerce, the right to
freedom of movement etc. But these rights are restricted when you go to prison. Such
restriction is lawful in lines with the Namibian Constitution and the application of
international human rights law. Trials awaiting prisoners or people who have been
sentence lose some of their rights such as freedom of movement but them other rights such
as the right to dignity. There are some rights which cannot be suspended in any
circumstances because they are necessary for the survival of a mankind. This means that
the duty of police is to protect as well as they have the duty to maintain a balance between
humanity and security. While providing security to a group of society they cannot ignore
the other member of society. Prisoners are the member of society. They have right to
subsistence which is inalienable in nature. Excessive use of power and total lack of
humanity towards the dying prisoners is at threat to the principles of justice.
Bentham have said that absolute freedom is practically not possible because to maintain
between the balance between rights and duties of an individual with the rights and duties
of other individuals living in the society there is need to put certain degree of restrain of
freedom. But this does not mean that one has got the right to infringe the basic subsistence
right to live a life with dignity of prisoners.
The term deontology is a moral philosophy which is based significantly on the works of
Kant. According to Kant human beings are rational and reasonable, thus having autonomy
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deserving of fundamental worth. This worth requires respect which should manifest itself
in preventing people from being used as a means to end. This clearly embodied that
human beings have inherent dignity which cannot be taken by anybody at any cost. Even
the prisoners have the right to dignity and police officers cannot infringe their right.
Criminal are sent to jail with the intention of to prevent other from doing such crimes as
well as to correct the criminal. Further the statue (of Justice ) in the court signify that
justice inflicted should be equal to the wrong committed. But illegal detention of prisoner
in a jail will certainly doesnt lead to his correction but further it will be regarded as
brutality. The law says that it is justified to handcuff a person if it is for the security of the
public a large but what about the security of the handcuffed person. Herein handcuffed
person will include under trail prisoners as well as prisnors.
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They have their basic right to
security which cannot be taken by them in any circumstances.
It is against the human rights as well as constitutional rights
Against the Human Rights.:- According to UDHR every individual has the right to
live a dignified this right is provided to prisons also. Police authorities cannot
detain a person if they dont have reasonable grounds for detention. Reasonable
grounds means that the crime is of extremely heinous nature or the crime is very
mischievous, he had tried to escape before, then only in this circumstances
handcuffing can be justified.
Against the Constitutional Rights: - Our constitution under art. 21 grants right to
protection of life and personal liberty. And illegal handcuffing is against it.
Against the Basic rights to security :- The law says that it is justified to handcuff a
person if it is for the security of the public a large but what about the security of
the handcuffed person. Herein handcuffed person will include under trail prisoners
as well as prisoners. Basic rights mean rights to have those things which are
necessity to live a life. Right to security is one of them. Rights to security of prison
are also a basic right of them which is inalienable and they should be provided.

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Security rights
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Against the Natural Rights: - Right to have a dignified life is a natural right that
have been conferred by the nature and it is unalienable from an individual. To
handcuff a person means restrain a person from his freedom to move which is a
part of to live a life with dignity. A person can be restraining in a particular area
but it is not morally and ethically justified to handcuff which is further turned
brutality.

Generally Handcuffing through bar or any other means creates an assumption in
the minds of people that the handcuffed person has committed some crime even
when the charges against them has not been proved. The person has a right to get
protected against such type of defamation. Such an act which caused an
irreparable harm to the person even which cannot be measured in terms of money
as compensation is seriously as a mark of shame to our claim that we are living in
a well civilized society. So the right provided to protection from public is also
needed to be protected.
There proper grievances need to be set up to solve this problem. To solve this
problem there is a need to keep check on the working of police authorities
especially in local areas.

CONCLUSION
Handcuffing which is nowadays emerged as the major issue that is need to be
noticed as nowadays police authorities have been using their power of handcuffing
a person when there is a threat the accused may create mischief or the accused may
escape. In such circumstances handcuffing is justified but police authorities are
excersing this right provided to them as an advantage as now a days various cases
are reported where police authorities has handcuffed a person so that it will be easy
for them to detain that person.
At last I would like to conclude my project by a very famous quote said by John
Adams that liberty cannot be preserved without the general knowledge among the
people. And this discourse lead to spread of knowledge among the people about
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this problem among people which will start from here which may lead a
transformation in this discipline..