To ensure that no undertrial is handcuffed without the prior permission of court, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has issued directions to the Director General of Police, Punjab and Haryana, and the Chandigarh Inspector General of Police to convey the same to their officers.A Division Bench of the High Court has also directed all the magistrates of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh to verify from each and every undertrial produced before them if they were handcuffed by the police. The High Court has also directed the magistrates to know every detail before granting permission to handcuff any undertrial. The Court made it clear that the police will have to give a reason if it wants to handcuff an undertrial. The directions were passed in wake of a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by World Human Rights Protection Council. Its chairman, Advocate Ranjan Lakhanpal, had filed the PIL arising out of a report published in an English daily. The report had highlighted the pitiable condition of a juvenile, who was booked on charges of murder and was handcuffed with the bed in PGI. The juvenile, who was undergoing a murder trial in Faridkot was suffering from a heart ailment, as a result of which he was brought to the PGI. Based on a news item, Lakhanpal had filed the PIL which was disposed today with the above directions.
