Bill replacing CrPC says police can't handcuff everyone who's arrested

Police will not be allowed to handcuff everyone who is arrested, as a new bill to replace the CrPC has now sought to consider the nature and gravity of the offence before taking such an action.

The new Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, introduced in Lok Sabha last Friday, seeks to clear the confusion over the Supreme Court direction on using handcuffs, which are often violated resulting in police landing in trouble.

Who can be handcuffed as per the new bill

Only those who are habitual, repeat offenders who escaped from custody, members of organised crime syndicates, terror accused, drug traffickers, murderers, rapists, currency counterfeiters, paedophiles and economic offenders can be handcuffed. Those who possess arms and ammunition illegally, those who throw acid on people and those who commit offences against the State, including acts endangering sovereignty, unity and integrity of India or economic offences can be handcuffed, according to Section 43(3) of the Bill.

"The police officer may, keeping in view the nature and gravity of the offence, use handcuffs while effecting the arrest" of such persons, it said.

The Supreme Court directive, at present, is that the police should have the permission of a magistrate court to handcuff a person. However, this direction has been violated by the police on several occasions.

Last June, Karnataka High Court had ruled that no person, whether he is an accused, undertrial or convict, should be handcuffed unless the reason for the same is recorded in the case diary and/or the relevant record as to why such a person is required to be handcuffed.

In 2016, the Bombay High Court had directed the union territory of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli to pay Rs 4 lakh as compensation to a newspaper editor for illegally handcuffing him in public and parading him on the streets.

The High Court had then awarded Rs 2 lakh compensation to Suprit Ishwar Divate, a law student who was handcuffed during the execution of a non-bailable warrant in a cheque bounce case.

The Supreme Court, which had formulated a process in 1995, on several occasions had made remarks on handcuffing. 

In 1978, it said reckless handcuffing and chaining in public degrades, puts to shame finer sensibilities and is a slur on our culture. Two years later in another verdict it said, "to bind a man...is to torture him, defile his dignity, vulgarise society and foul the soul of our Constitutional culture".