Ambihai Gayandran
LL. B (University of Jaffna), LL.M in Criminal Justice Administration (OUSL), Diploma in Forensic Medicine for Lawyers and Judges (University of Peradeniya), Attorney-at-Law, Notary Public, Sworn Translator (English-Tamil) Visiting Lecturer, The Open University of Sri Lanka
The right to life is implicitly guaranteed by Article 13 (4) of Sri Lankan Constitution, as required by Article 6 of the ICCPR, however deaths in custody —which usually refer to deaths while in the custody of the police or the armed forces— still occur in Sri Lanka. According to Section 371 of the Criminal Procedure Code, all deaths in custody should be subject to an inquest by the magistrate. Deaths in custody present a significant challenge to the criminal justice system in many countries. Therefore, this research aims at a comparative study on deaths in custody in Sri Lanka and India. It intends to deal with the following questions: what are deaths in custody? What is the inquest method? What is the importance of medico-legal reports in these cases? What are the legal frameworks available with regard to this in Sri Lanka and India? What are the international arrangements on preventing custodial deaths? And what are the lacunae in the existing legal framework in Sri Lanka? The research objectives include understanding custodial deaths, understanding the method of sudden death inquest in custodial deaths, recognizing the importance of medico-legal reports, understanding the Indian and international framework on custodial deaths, and finally finding lacunae in the Sri Lankan framework. This comparative study employs a qualitative approach, and begins with the literature, official reports and available data on deaths in custody in Sri Lanka and India. There has been significant
January 2024 research on this topic previously, however those papers only deal with constitutional arrangements and the varieties of custodial deaths, while this study additionally explores the importance of the forensic medicine field in this regard. According to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) there was a total of 24 cases of custodial deaths and 13 cases of encounter deaths involving the Sri Lanka police from January 2020 to August 2023. In India the National Human Rights Commission Reported over 2,150 cases of deaths in judicial custody and 155 deaths in police custody in 2021-2022. Therefore, this research aims to raise awareness about the complexities and challenges involved in addressing deaths in custody and the importance of protecting the rights of all individuals within the custodial system.
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