Whether Sri Lankan Constitution has adequate provisions to recognize custodial death as a violation of the right to life

Abstract

Custodial death one of the worst crimes in civilized society which is governed by the rule of law. The deaths of accused/suspects remain a very controversial topic not only in a particular country or region, but in the world and it has been happening for a quite long time in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan Criminal Justice system sorely lacks substantial legislative provisions to regulate the right to life due to the fact that it is questioned whether any specific provision to address custodial deaths in the constitution. Many other nations have already recognized this right as fundamental and adopted comprehensive legislative provisions for custodial deaths. The constitution of India and Supreme Court of India has forbidden custodial torture in progressive manner. But it is questioned whether Sri Lanka constitutional provisions are adequate to address this issue, Hence, there is an urgent requirement to address this issue and to fix this deficiency in our existing justice delivery framework in order to set legitimate principles for custodian deaths. This study aims to analyze the main theoretical debates within the academic field in order to identify the current lacks of custodial deaths in Sri Lanka, to analyze how custodial deaths cases are handled within the framework of the Indian Jurisdiction and Sri Lankan jurisdiction and to use the finding of the study to make proposals and recommendations to use it in the human rights field. The qualitative method, including primary data and secondary data were used for this research. The study concludes that there are less and no adequate constitutional provisions available in the current constitution of Sri Lanka to address issues pertaining to custodial death comparing to the Indian Constitution. Hence, an urgent constitutional amendment is required to address the issue.