Access to Prisons and Custodial Torture

Thus far, the Supreme Court's denunciations of custodial torture have had little effect. The 113th report of the Law Commission had recommended suitable amendments to the Indian Evidence Act of 1872 that would place the onus of proof on the culpable police official. However, to ensure the humane treatment of prisoners in custody, the apex court has simply to adopt an earlier ruling of 1982 that had allowed access to convicted prisoners in jail so that society at large would be apprised of the reasons behind their detention and the conditions in which they served their sentence.