...... 28 CIVIL LIBERTIES prison management, a properly trained and more committed staff, including medical staff, and an improvement in the capacity of prisons to deal with mental illness and morbidity among inmates. The Commission reiterates its recommendations that in all these areas all State Governments should pay more attention. 4.28 As deaths resulting from torture in judicial custody have been found to be comparatively rare, the Commission in December 2001 modified its earlier guidelines requiring the videography of post-mortem examinations of all deaths occurring in jails. The Commission considered the post-mortem examination to be essential, but the requirement of videography of the post-mortem examination could be relaxed in the case of deaths in Judicial Custody. In modification of its instruction, the Commission directed on 21 December, 2001 that, while its earlier instruction regarding the videography of the post-mortem examination in respect of a death in police custody would remain in force as before, the requirement of videography of the post-mortem examination in respect of a death in jail would be applicable only when the preliminary inquest by the Magistrate had raised suspicion of some foul play, or when the complaint alleging foul play had been made to the authorities concerned, or there was any other reason for suspicion of foul play. We wish to reiterate the same position. C] Encounter Deaths 4.29 The guidelines issued by the Commission in respect of procedure to be followed by all State Govts. in dealing with deaths occurring in encounters with the police were circulated to all Chief Secretaries of States and Administrators of Union Territories on 29.3.1997. 4.30 Experience of the Commission in the past six years in the matter of encounter deaths has not been encouraging. Though under the existing guidelines, it is implicit that the States must send an intimation to the Commission of all cases of deaths arising out of police encounters, yet some States did not send intimation on the pretext that there is no such specific direction and hence they were not following the guidelines issued by the Commission in true spirit. As a result, authentic statistics of deaths occurring in various States as a result of police action are not readily available in the Commission. The Commission felt that these statistics were necessary for the effective protection of human rights in the discharge of its duties. Therefore, in order to bring in transparency and accountability of public servants, the Commission revised the existing guidelines on 2 December 2003 (Annexure 3). It was emphasised that the States must send intimation to the Commission of all cases of deaths arising out of police encounters. The Commission also recommended a modified procedure to be followed by all State Govts. in all cases of deaths in the course of police action, and it was, inter alia, made clear that where the police officers belonging to the same police station are members of the encounter party whose action resulted in deaths, such NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION