BNSS Section 196 And NHRC Guidelines On Custodial Deaths: Can India Match UK Article 2 Inquest Standards And US Civil Rights Remedies?
- IJLLR Journal
- May 12
- 2 min read
Vaibhav Singh Payal, Law College Dehradun, Uttaranchal University
Ms. Purnima Tyagi, Law College Dehradun, Uttaranchal University
ABSTRACT
The custodial deaths essentially reflect on the most alarming contradiction at the core of democracy; the power of the state to imprison a citizen includes the responsibility of the state to protect the life of that citizen. Legally, the challenge in India is not the non-existence of principles, but the gap between the current procedures and systems, and an investigative model that is capable of achieving objective finding, and public answerability and restoration. This manuscript aims a doctrinal and comparative framework to discover if the Section 196 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, in addition to the operational NHRC guidelines of custodial deaths, can attempt to meet the benchmarks of the Article 2 inquests in the UK and the US civil rights remedial system. It illustrates that India has, and builds upon, vital constitutional/ statutory/ administrative architecture, in particular doctrinal judicial relief, the constitution of the magistrate inquiry, family and forensic, and the duty to report. Of course, these architecture elements are ameliorated by poor institutional autonomy, inconsistent evidence integrity, limited active citizenry engagement, and the lack of a dedicated civil remedy for judicial crime. Ultimately, the comparison conveys that the UK system presents an investigative model of relative independence, scope, and engagement of the bereaved, whereas the US system shows how civil and tort law combined with public liability and systemic and structural interventions are substitutes for criminal law. The manuscript finishes on the note that India has the potential in moving closer to each of these models, albeit it can only be by rights enforcing codified investigative standards, institutional accountability, and a more definitive remedial framework.
Keywords: custodial deaths; Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita; National Human Rights Commission; Article 2 inquests; civil rights remedies.
