Recently, the Karnataka High Court passed a verdict on handcuffing, which is significant. In Suprit Ishwar Divate vs The State of Karnataka, while awarding two lakh rupees as compensation for handcuffing an accused, without recording the reasons in the police case diary, it gave liberty to the state to recover the amount from the delinquent police officer.
Principles of handcuffing
The High Court held that an accused, in normal circumstances, need not be handcuffed on arrest. It is only under exceptional circumstances (such as the possibility of escape and/or the possibility of causing harm to himself or others), that handcuffing an accused can be resorted to. Further, when there is such handcuffing, the arresting officer must record the reasons, which then would have to stand judicial/court scrutiny. The petitioner in this case was a law student against whom five criminal cases had been filed for offences under the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 for the dishonour of cheques. He had been arrested in furtherance of a non-bailable warrant issued by a magistrate.
