In a recent case of Suprit Ishwar Divate v State of Karnataka[1], the High Court of Karnataka held that an accused person can only be handcuffed in extreme circumstances. In case the arresting officer decides to handcuff an arrested person, proper reasons are to be recorded for the same in order to justify the handcuffing before Court.

In the case of Citizens for Democracy v. State of Assam and Ors.[2], it was laid down as follows:

“Firstly, to handcuff is to hoop harshly. Further, to handcuff is to punish humiliatingly and to vulgarise the viewers also. Iron straps are insult and pain writ large, animalising victim and keepers. Since there are other ways of ensuring security, it can be laid down as a rule that handcuffs or other fetters shall not be forced on the person of an undertrial prisoner ordinarily.... We lay down as necessarily implicit in Arts. 14 and 19 that when there is no compulsive need to fetter a person's limbs, it is sadistic, capricious despotic and demoralizing to humble a man by manacling him.”

In an attempt to analyse the practical situation existing in India, the Apex Court made the following observation in the case of Sunil Batra (II) vs. Delhi Administration[3]:

Many of the victims are poor, mute, illiterate, desperate and destitute and too distant from the law to be aware of their rights or ask for access to justice, especially when the running tension of the prison and the grisly potential for zoological reprisals stare them in the face. So, it is for the court to harken when humanity calls, without waiting for particular petitions.

When we talk about rights and access to justice in case of arrested persons, we often refer to the D.K. Basu case which brought out necessary amendments in the Code of Criminal Procedure. However, the basis of these rights lies in Article 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India. This sums up the concept of restraining in using handcuffs as a compulsory method of arrest. It is also considered as a human rights violation when a person is handcuffed without any necessary reason as it causes loss of reputation.