Book Review

Book: Human Rights and State Custody in India (2009 Edition) Author: Dr. K. P. Singh, IPS (M.E.; LL.M.; Ph.D.) Published By: J. C. Bangia, The Bright Law House, New Delhi-110002 Book No: 342.7(100):343.261 (NHRC Library) The Author of this book makes an insight on the legal provision of different types of state custody and the human rights violation, either due to lack of enforcement mechanism or existence of legal abidingness. The target group of this book is Law Students, Teachers, Human Rights Activist and concerned officials responsible for State Custody. The Author has presented a socio-Legal scenario of State Custody and Human Rights in India in present context. The author, being an official in Police, had expressed his thorough and vast experience in the field in the custodial jurisdiction and different kind of Human Rights violation during such custody by public official in different degree level. The review of this book is done according to its different parts as follows: The First part of the book narrates the conceptual and historical aspects of the State and the Law, enumerating different Theories of Law. It further defines the custody, its kinds and the International standards and norms of State custody. Apart from State Custody, there is other type of custody i.e. Civil Custody, Criminal Custody and Military Custody. In short, this chapter lays down the basis foundation of the book. The second part of the book makes a detailed analysis of legal provisions of State Custody in Criminal Laws in India, mainly done by way of arrest, and compared it with various provisions of Human Rights protection specified in Indian Constitution and further discussed the guidelines of Supreme Court of India and National Human Rights Commission, to be followed by Police or any other Public Official having such power of arrest. The classification and challenges of State custody in criminal law, in this chapter, is interlinked with the Human Rights violation is explained with support of various provisions and case laws in such manners that even a layman is able to understand it. By reviewing this chapter, it is found that more emphasis is given on provisions, sections, and articles for state custody in criminal laws in India; rather the

reviewer thinks that the author needs to make a comparative study with regard to human rights position in India as the name of the book suggests. The third part of the book analyses the concept and different laws on preventive detention and constitutional safeguards against it. The best quality of the author in writing of this book is that he mentioned one sub-point Challenges at the end of every chapter, which gives an insight to every reader to make aware about the existing problem of Human Rights violation in the society, which ultimately helps for reforms in legal system and in creating a model welfare state. The fourth part of the book is nicely structured with regard to different provisions for state custody in civil laws. But it has less relevance with Human rights violation. The fifth part of the book pertains to the State custody in Revenue laws which are broadly categorized into Income Tax evasion, Customs Duty evasion, Recovery of Land Revenue and Evasion of Central Excise. The author in this chapter, no doubt, has enumerated the concept by mentioning of provisions of Central Excise Act, Constitution of India (including Schedules and Lists), probation of Offenders Act, Income Tax Act, Code of Criminal Procedure, Customs Act, Land Revenue Act but he failed to analyse and interlink this provisions with its proposed Human Rights violation. The sixth part of the book talks about the arrest for recovery of debts of cooperative society and recovery of bank dues. Such recovery is made under the Recovery of Debts Due to Banks and Financial Institution Act, 1993 The seventh part of the book had a discussion on State custody in Military Laws mainly on the provisions of Army Act. The major question as to fundamental rights of the military person arises as under Art. 33 of the Constitution of India, Parliament is empowered by law to restrict or abrogate the fundamental rights of the members of the Armed Forces. This question needs to be taken into consideration. The eighth part of this book talks about the state custody in para-military laws mainly concerned with offences and punishment under the Border Security Forces Act, 1968. It is found that the punishment under BSF Act is so much

stringent for pity offences and has conflict of jurisdiction as to civil or criminal courts. The ninth part of the book is more important as it deals with the State custody for care and correction because there are some unfortunate individuals who are vulnerable to exploitation on the basis of their age and mental state i.e. custody of child, mentally challenged persons, etc. The tenth and eleventh part of the book states about the State custody for wild life protection Act and some other detention like custody for segregation and medical treatment, extradition, political reasons, by default and by birth. The twelfth part of the book concludes by providing the conclusion and valuable suggestions of each and every part of the book. This book is well edited and printed. The content of this book shows the indepth and eminent knowledge of the author in this field. The mentioning of the point challenges at the end of every chapter gives an opportunity to the reader to think over the existing problem in the society and to go for the further research in such field. The language of the book is also so conversant that even a layman can also understand it. But the major drawback of this book is that the author failed to provide the basic introduction as to what constitutes Human Rights and how it has its significance with the state custody in India. The author tried to interlink the human rights and state custody concepts but could not establish it successfully. The author, in this book, need to have made more emphasis on the Human Rights aspects rather than emphasis on State custody as it would have served the purpose with regard to the Title of the book.

Reviewed By: Jay Pandya 1st year LLM Student GNLU, Gandhinagar