October 12, 2006	Thursday	Ramazan 18, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Oct 11: The Supreme Court on Wednesday barred police from putting fetters on prisoners in jails without seeking approval from the district and sessions judges on the recommendation of the inspector-general of prisons.

“Applying fetters on inmates creates obstructions in their liberty and even if at all under compelling circumstances it is necessary then it should be done with great care by ensuring that the prisoner’s freedom is not curtailed unnecessarily,” a bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and Justice Mohammad Nawaz Abbasi observed.

On a suo motu notice, the bench was considering a complaint of a prisoner, Syed Azhar Hussain Shah, who had stated that he was put into fetters whenever he was taken for court proceedings though shackles were removed when he was confined inside jail.

In future it would be appreciated, the bench observed, that the sessions judges while granting such approval would scrutinise whether the prisoner in question was involved in a heinous crime and could be termed a hardened criminal.

The district and sessions judges were also directed that during their monthly visits to jails, as required under the high court rules and orders, they should review their earlier orders regarding fettering of prisoners.

The order of the apex court will be sent to registrars of the high courts for transmission to all district and sessions judges, IG prisons and home secretaries of the four provinces for strict adherence.

Punjab Additional Advocate-General Syed Azhar Hussain submitted a report stating that under Rule 644, Chapter 27, and Rule 723(iv) of the Prisons Rules, the superintendent of a jail enjoyed the power to impose fetters for custody of prisoners subject to prior direction of the prisons IG.

At the last hearing the court had sought a report from the Lahore district and sessions judge.

The report said the Punjab government had categorised those prisoners as dangerous who had been declared so by police; were wanted in more than four petty cases; involved in dacoity, highway robbery, forgery, impersonation involving huge amounts according to the discretion of the jail superintendent jail in individual cases; prisoners having escaped from police or jail custody, involved in assault on prison officials or serious riots, hardened and professional criminals and foreign nationals involved in anti-state activities and espionage.

It had been decided that all under-trial prisoners involved in sectarian or terrorist activity would be fettered in jails, the report said.

It said that under the instructions of IG prisons, all those prisoners would be considered hardened, dangerous, desperate and professional criminals who were involved in multiple cases of dacoity and robbery, murder, rape during dacoity or robbery, abduction for ransom, murder during lurking house trespass by night, kidnapping or abducting a person under age of 14 years for murder or to subject the abducted person to lust, involved in the cases falling under the Espionage Act, who escaped or made an attempt to escape from lawful custody and proclaimed offenders keeping in view the nature of offences or if law and order situation was created in a jail due to his behaviour.

Keeping the criteria in view, cases of 95 persons under bar fetters had been reconsidered, the report said, adding that fetters of 11 people were removed while five were referred to the Lahore central jail medical officer.

About the complainant and other inmates, the report said that though they were put under shackles for more than a year because they were involved in multiple cases, it had been decided to remove their fetters within jail premises since their conduct in jail was satisfactory and they did not involve themselves in violation of jail rules.

However, proper safety and security measures would be taken whenever they would be taken out of jail and bar fetters might be imposed on them, it said.

The report said that bar fetters of three persons in the Lahore district jail had been removed, while cases of 55 had been reconsidered thoroughly.