Being acutely conscious of such inhumane practices, the Supreme Court in the case of D.K. Basu vs State of W. Bengal (writ petition CRL No. 539, 1986) had laid down the procedures to be followed by the police in cases of arrest or detention ... By inference, these procedures apply to all law-enforcing agencies in the country. The guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court include:

* Police carrying out arrest and handling the interrogation of an arrestee must wear visible, clear identification and name tags giving their designations. Particular of such officers should also be recorded in a register.

* A memo of arrest should be prepared at the time of arrest, and the memo should be attested by a member of the arrestee family or a known and responsible person from the neighbourhood

* The arrestee is entitled to keep a family member or a relative or a friend with him during the course of interrogation.

* The arrestee must be medically examined at the time of arrest.

* The arrestee must go for medical examination every 48 hours of detention.

* The arrestee is permitted to meet his lawyer during the course of interrogation.

What makes these guidelines sacrosanct is that the apex court has accorded them a sanction of commitment of contempt for breach or violation.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has ... communicated these guidelines to all director- generals of police and heads of other agencies ... The Ministry of Home Affairs needs to vigorously follow their implementation by all agencies.

To curb the tendency of law enforcement agencies of resorting to third-degree methods, the NHRC has recommended several steps which include:

* Surprise visits of police stations by senior officials, and if one is found violating human and legal rights, severe punishment should be meted out to officials.

* A magistrate must ask the arrestee whether he was beaten. If yes, a medical examination is to be done and injuries are to be recorded.

* State training institutions must pay heed to imparting proper interrogation techniques, and

* Supervisory ranks should eschew essentially statistical approach in highlighting an organisations performance.