Judgment

KULDIP SINGH, J.

(1) "WE clearly declare - and it shall be obeyed from the Inspector General of Police and Inspector General of Prisons to the escort constable and the jailwarder - that the rule, regarding a prisoner in transit between prison house and court house, is freedom from handcuffs and the exception, under conditions of judicial supervision we have indicated earlier, will be restraints with irons, to be justified before or after. We mandate the judicial officer before whom the prisoner is produced to interrogate the prisoner, as a rule, whether he has been subjected to handcuffs or other irons treatment and, if he has been, the official concerned shall be asked to explain the action forthwith in the light of this judgment." Ordained this court - speaking through V.R. Krishna lyer, J.

(2) IN Sunil Batra v. Delhi Admn. 2 this court pronounced that undertrials shall be deemed to be in custody, but not undergoing punitive imprisonment. Fetters, especially bar fetters, shall be shunned as violative of human dignity, both within and without prisons. The indiscriminate resort to handcuffs when accused persons are taken to and from court and t