Prisoners' rights can't be violated: Apex court

The Supreme Court has said police excesses whether inside or outside the jail cannot be countenanced in the name of maintaining discipline, while holding that the court cannot transfer a jail inmate without hearing his or her version.

A bench of Justices T S Thakur and F M I Kalifullah also said, any abuse of official position was open to critical judicial scrutiny, but the court should not ignore the fact that the country is facing extremist forces.

“The glory of constitutional democracy that we have adopted, however, is that whatever be the challenges posed by such dark forces, the country’s commitment to the Rule of Law remains steadfast. Courts’ in this country have protected and would continue to protect the ideals of the rights of the citizen being inviolable except in accordance with the procedure established by law,” the bench said.