Thursday, May 06, 2010

SC turns soft bans polygraph, brain mapping

Perhaps the justices of the Supreme Court need a lesson in National Security.
In a major blow to investigating agencies, the Supreme Court on Wednesday held unconstitutional and violation of the ‘right to privacy' the use of narco analysis, brain-mapping and polygraph tests on accused, suspects and witnesses without their consent.

A three-Judge Bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justices R.V. Raveendran and J.M. Panchal, in a 251-page judgment, said:
“We hold that no individual should be forcibly subjected to any of the techniques in question, whether in the context of investigation in criminal cases or otherwise. Doing so would amount to an unwarranted intrusion into personal liberty.”

1 comment:

CodeNameV said...

DD, I hope you saw this in today's Hindu.

http://www.hindu.com/2010/05/07/stories/2010050762191200.htm

Specifically, this in the article
http://www.hindu.com/2010/05/07/images/2010050762191201.jpg

It says "Guillotine, Long drop hanging, Gas Chamber, Lethal Injection are humane methods of capital punishment while boiling to death, beheading etc are not"

I thought the whole point of capital punishment is to send out a message that "though we are a civil society respecting humanity, if some one behaves in an inhuman way, we will not hesitate in punishing the guilty in the most inhuman ways possible."

Anyway, I digress. The larger question, killing is killing. Its inhuman be it through beheading or using lethal injection. Why the hell does The Hindu think that there is a humane way of doing an inhuman act? Who the hell is this Staff Reporter who seems to have created a very vague definition of what is humane and what is not?

Seriously, I couldnt believe it when I read it first. I read it again to confirm that I was reading what I was reading! Epic Fail!