Kritthna Iyer, J. - (1.) THE Judgments of the court were delivered by (fw himsilf and Chinnappa Reddy, J.)-
(2.) THIS writ petition originated, epistolary fashion, in a letter by a prisoner, Batra, to a Judge of this court (one of us), fornplaining of a brutal asaault by a Head Warder on another prisoner, Prem Chand. Forms were forsaken since freedom was at stake and the letter wai posted on the bench to be metamorphosed into a habean proceeding and was judicially navigated with eclectic creativity, thanks to the humanist scholarship of Dr. Y. S. Chitale as amicus curiae, and the erudite passion for affirmative court action of Shri Soli Sorabjee, the learned Solicitor-General. Where tha prison process is dehumanised, forensic help, undeflected by the negative crudities of the adversary system, makes us dare where we might have daunted. The finest hour of justice comes when court and counsel constructively collaborate to fashion a relief in the individual case and fathom deeper to cure the institutional pathology which breeds wrongs and defies rights. Here, the individual is prisoner whose anus was allegedly pierced with a warder's baton and the institution is the Tihar Prison, right in the capital of the country and under the nose of the Home Ministry. This case is revelatory of several sins in this central Penitentiary. Something is rotten in the State of Denmark!' The constitutional imperative which informs our perspective in this habeas corpus proceeding must first be set out. The rule of law meets with its Waterloo when the State's minions become law-breakers and so the court, as the sentinel of the nation and the voice of the Constitution, runs down the violators with its writ and secures compliance with human rights even thehind iron bars and by prison warders. This case is at once a symptom, a symbol and a signpost vis-a-vis human rights in prison situations. When prison trauma prevails, prison justice must invigilate and hence we broaden our "habeas' jurisdiction. Jurisprudence cannot slumber when the very campuses of punitive justice witness torture. The petitioner does not seek the release of the prisoner because a life sentence keeps him in confinement. But the dynamic role of judicial 494 remedies, after Batra case, imparts to the habeas corpus writ a versatile vitality and operational utility that makes the healing presence of the law live up to its reputation as bastion of liberty even within the secrecy of the hidden cell. Blackstone called it 'the great and efficacious writ in all manner of illegal confinement and Lord Denman proclaimed in 1839 that it had been 'for ages effectual to an extent never known in any other country'. So long as Batra remains good law, judicial policing of Bastille practices will broaden to embrace the wider range of prison vices. Dr. Chitale drew our attention to American legal literature disclosing the trend while Shri Soli Sorabjee for the Union of India, cited Corwin. Corwin's remarks on American constitutional law, referred to with approval in Batra has our assent: Federal courts have intensified their oversight of State penal facilities, reflecting a heightened concern with the extent to which the ills that plague so-called correctional institution - overcrowding, understaffing, unsanitary facilities, brutality, constant fear of violence, lack of adequate medical and mental health care, poor food service, intrusive correspondence restrictions, inhumane isolation, segregation, inadequate or non-existent rehabilitative and/or educational programs, deficient recreational opportunities - violate the Eighth Amendment ban on "cruel and unusual punishment".
(3.) THE essence of the matter is that in our era of human rights consciousness the habeas writ has functional plurality and the constitutional regard for human decency and dignity is tested by this capability. We ideologically accept the words of Will Durant : It is time for all good men to come to the aid of their party, whose name is civilization. Likewise, we endorse, as part of our constitutional thought, what the British government's White Paper, titled "People in Prison", stated with telling effect : A society that believes in the worth of individual beings can have the quality of iti belief judged, at least in part, by the quality of its prison and probation services and of the resources made available to them. THE learned Solicitor-General brought this kcynote thought to our notice in the matchless diction of Sir Winston Churchill and briefly referred to in Batra in a speech seventy years ago: THE mood and temper of the public in regard io ttc treatment of crime and criminals is one of the most unfailing tests of the civilization of any country. A calm dispassionate recognition of the rights of the accused, and even of the convicted criminal, against the Stale - a constant heart-searching by all charged with the duty of punishment - a desire and eagerness to rehabilitate in the world of industry those who have paid their due in the hard coinage of punishment: tireless efforts towards the discovery of curative and regenerative processes: unfailing faith that there is a treasure, if you can only find it, in the 495 heart of every man. These are the symbols, which, in the treatment of crime and criminal, mark and measure the stored-up strength of a nation, and are sign and proof of the living virtue in it. Truly, this is a perspective-setter and this is also the import of the Preamble and Article 21 as we will presently see. We are satisfied that protection of the prisoner within his rights is part of the office of Article 32. 'Prisons are built with stones of law' and so it behoves the court to insist that, in the eye of law, prisoners are persons, not animals, and punish the deviant 'guardians' of the prison system where they go berserk and defile the dignity of the human inmate. Prison houses are part of Indian earth and the Indian Constitution cannot be held at bay by jail officials 'dressed in a little, brief authority', when Part III is invoked by a convict. For when a prisoner is traumatized, the Constitution suffers a shock. And when the court takes cognizance of such violence and violation, it does, like the Hound of Heaven, 'But with unhurrying chase, and unperturbed pace. Deliberate speed and Majestic instancy' follow the official offender and frown down the outlaw adventure.;