However, in a large majority of cases, the escorting authorities admit that judicial permission is not received and the reasons for using restraints are not documented in the police station diary. A. Reasons ¾ Restraints are sometimes necessary for legitimate security reasons. ¾ Police work can be dangerous, and a small minority of arrestees and detainees are desperate and violent. Political considerations also play a vital role in some case. They are used many a times by the police personnel, both publicly and privately, to humiliate, debase and intimidate arrestees and detainees. Power and corruption also lead to cases of human rights violations regarding handcuffing. ¾ ¾ ¾ B. The Law says The Supreme Court of India has repeatedly condemned the unnecessary use of handcuffs by the police as a violation of the right to personal liberty guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution of India. The landmark Supreme Court case on handcuffing is Prem Shankar Shukla v. Delhi Administration (1980). In this case, the validity of certain clauses of the Punjab Police Rules, which made handcuffing mandatory during arrest, was challenged. In his opinion, Justice V R Krishna Iyer eloquently stated: “The guarantee of human dignity which forms a part of our constitutional culture . . . spring[s] into action when we realize that to manacle man is more than to mortify him, it is to dehumanise him and, therefore, to violate his very personhood too often using the mask of dangerousness and security.” In Prem Shankar Shukla and other leading cases, the Supreme Court has laid down strict procedural guidelines specifying both when and how the use of handcuffs is appropriate. According to the Court, handcuffing is legal only if the arrestee is – (a) involved in serious non-bailable offences; and (b) previously convicted of a crime, of desperate character, likely to commit suicide, or likely to attempt to escape. The use of handcuffs and the reasons for their use must be recorded. It is illegal to walk 30 Manual on Human Rights for Police Officers