Custodial Deaths & the Anti-Torture Law Gap
People keep dying in Indian lock-ups and jails, year after year, and almost no one is held to account. Government figures placed before Parliament in March 2026 put custodial deaths at 170 for 2025-26 alone, with a single disciplinary action across five years. Behind the numbers sits a structural gap: India signed the UN anti-torture convention back in 1997 but never ratified it, and the standalone law that would criminalise torture has been promised, drafted and allowed to lapse. Court-made safeguards fill part of the void, but only part.
- Custodial deaths
- UNCAT
- Prevention of Torture Bill
- DK Basu case
- NHRC
- Law Commission 273rd Report
- Article 21
- Anti-torture law
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