Delhi HC Seeks Centre’s Response On PIL Challenging Constitutional Validity Of Solitary Confinement

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Union Ministries of Home Affairs (MHA) and Law and Justice on a PIL challenging the constitutional validity of provisions related to solitary confinement.

A Division Bench led by Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad ordered the respondents to file their responses within six weeks. The matter is listed for further hearing on May 23, 2023.

Advocate Harsh Vibhore Singhal filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging Sections 73 and 74 (both related to solitary confinement) of the IPC as well as several sections of the Prisons Act, 1894.

Singhal argued that the term “solitary confinement” is neither defined in the IPC nor in the Prisons Act. According to the plea, this is an additional punishment as well as an arbitrary judicial and police power with no nexus to the sentence.

The petition argued, “It is a blatant violation of the law, and no court can presume that just because a heinous crime was committed, a convict also deserves to be kept in solitary confinement. That solitary confinement is a venomous lethal sting of a veritable scorpion; it is a sadistic, barbaric, and inhuman practise that confines prisoners in dingy malodorous dungeons by abusive, coercive, and obstreperous prison officials for even minor prison infractions such as feigning illness, squabbling over food or access to toilets, being indolent or even talking-back.”

It further added that solitary confinement is inhumane because it isolates an inmate from sensory, visual, and social society, and that even the Supreme Court has stated that such punishment should be used only in the rarest of rare circumstances.