Reintroduction Of Handcuffing In Indian Criminal Justice System

I. Introduction

Reckless handcuffing and chaining in public degrades, puts to shame finer sensibilities and is a slur on our culture. – Justice Krishna Iyer in Sunil Batra v. Delhi Administration, 1979

The history of handcuffs goes back to 400 BC when these were primarily used for controlling and enslaving prisoners of war. Modern handcuffs found its origin from 1912 when it was mainly used to transport prisoners from police stations to jails and courts and back again.¹ During British era, the colonial government used to handcuff and leg-shackles the revolutionaries preventing them from any type of escape or attack on the officers during custody. But, even during the British era, the then government started restricting the use of handcuffing. Section 12 of the Police Act, 1861² gave power to the Inspector-general of Police to frame such rules as he shall deem expedient relative to the organization, classification and distribution of the police force. The then