Legal Safeguards Against Police Custodial Violence

Abstract

Custodial violence remains one of the most persistent challenges confronting constitutional democracies, representing a direct assault on human dignity by the very institutions entrusted with protecting citizens. This paper examines the legal architecture developed in India to prevent, redress, and deter police custodial violence, tracing its evolution through constitutional guarantees, statutory provisions, judicial pronouncements, and institutional mechanisms. Drawing on landmark Supreme Court judgments such as Nilabati Behera v. State of Orissa, D.K. Basu v. State of West Bengal, and Joginder Kumar v. State of Uttar Pradesh, alongside recent statutory reform through the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, the paper evaluates whether existing safeguards translate into effective protection on the ground. It further examines the gap left by India's non-ratification of the UN Convention Against Torture and the continued absence of a standalone anti-torture statute. The paper concludes that while India possesses a rich jurisprudential and constitutional framework against custodial violence, implementation deficits, weak institutional accountability, and legislative inertia continue to undermine its effectiveness.