Judgment

KRISHNA IYER, J.:- The moral of this case is poignant. So long as an iron curtain divides the law set by the Constitution and lit by the SC from the minions of the State, so long shall this Courts writ remain a mystic myth and harmless half-truth making law in the books and law-in-action distant neighbours. This shall not be.

2. The sombre scenario unfurled by this habeas corpus proceeding begins with a telegram (dated 3-10-1980) on behalf of the prisoners-the petitioners-to one of us, complaining, manu brevi, of insufferable, illegal solitary confinement punctuated by periods of iron fetters, a lot shared by two others with him in Jaipur Central Jail. This trauma-laden message read :

"Convict Kishore Singh Ravinder Dev Pareek Surjeet Singh Central Jail Jaipur confined in cells with fetters illegally unconstitutionally more than eight months habeas corpus writ prayed order enquiry, and save Daulat Singh"

This grievance of the prisoners in twisted gyves triggered off judicial. action with telegraphic speed, as it were, and the Bench directed that the prisoners be forthwith liberated from solitary confinement and freed from fetters in terms of the law laid down by this Court in