The Prison Cases and the Dignity of the Individual

In one line

A prisoner does not lose his fundamental rights at the prison gate, and the two cases that established it also invented the procedure by which a prisoner can say so.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: the prison cases hold that conviction does not reduce a person to a non-person. A prisoner retains all fundamental rights except those necessarily lost by the fact of lawful incarceration, and the conditions of his detention are subject to Articles 14, 19 and 21. Sunil Batra I, AIR 1978 SC 1675, decided the substance: solitary confinement and bar fetters may not be imposed as a matter of course. Sunil Batra II, AIR 1980 SC 1579, decided the procedure and the remedy: a letter may be treated as a proceeding, habeas corpus reaches treatment inside the prison as well as the fact of detention, and the court retains a continuing responsibility.

Sunil Batra I

Facts. A prisoner under sentence of death challenged his solitary confinement under section 30(2) of the Prisons Act 1894, and a second prisoner challenged the imposition of bar fetters under section 56, as violating Articles 14, 19 and 21.

Held. A prisoner does not shed his fundamental rights at the prison gate. Section 30(2) does not authorise solitary confinement as a matter of course: it applies only to a prisoner under sentence of death whose sentence has become final and executable, and even then confinement apart from other prisoners must not amount to solitary confinement as understood in penal law. Bar fetters under section 56 may be imposed only where strictly necessary, for the shortest possible period, with reasons recorded and subject to review.

Why it matters. It reads two nineteenth century prison provisions down so that they can survive Part III, which is the technique of reading down applied to a statute of 1894 that nobody had thought to test.

Sunil Batra II

Facts. A prisoner in Tihar Jail wrote a letter to a judge of the Supreme Court alleging that a fellow prisoner was being tortured by a head warder to extract money from his relatives. The letter was treated as a petition.

Held. A letter from a prisoner may be treated as a proceeding; the writ of habeas corpus can be used not only to secure release but to protect a prisoner against inhuman treatment inside the prison; and the court retains a continuing responsibility over the conditions of detention. Directions were laid down including judicial appraisal by the Sessions Judge before solitary confinement or the withdrawal of privileges, the Prison Manual being kept within the prisoners' reach, grievance boxes in prisons, and regular visits and reports by Sessions Judges.