Depriving sleep is violation of fundamental rights: SC

The Supreme Court on Thursday took strong objection to the Delhi police's mid-night crackdown on yoga guru Ramdev's supporters saying unlawfully depriving a person from sleep is a violation of his fundamental rights.

"Deprivation of sleep has tumultuous adverse effects. It causes a stir and disturbs the quiet and peace of an individual's physical state. A natural process which is inherent in a human being, if disturbed, obviously affects basic life.

"It is for this reason that if a person is deprived of sleep, the effect thereof, is treated to be torturous. To take away the right of natural rest is also, therefore, violation of human rights. It becomes a violation of a fundamental right when it is disturbed intentionally, unlawfully and for no justification," Justice BS Chauhan said in his judgment.

Justice Chauhan wrote a separate judgment concurring with the findings of Justice Swatanter Kumar who had taken suo motu cognisance of media reports of the mid-night crackdown on Ramdev and his supporters on June 4-5 last year.

Justice Chauhan said the action of the police against the sleeping people could not be justified as "a sleeping crowd cannot be included within the bracket of an unlawful category unless there is sufficient material to brand it as such".

He said "the part played by the police and the administration shows the outrageous behaviour which cannot be justified by law in any civilized society".

Justice Chauhan said a sleeping person is "half dead" with his mental faculties are in an inactive state.