CAT/C/23/D/86/1997
page 5
Federal Court’s Guidelines would have been likely to grant the author the right to settle in
Canada. In addition, an application for judicial review of the denial of ministerial dispensation
might ultimately have made it possible for him to settle in the country on humanitarian grounds.
4.8
For a communication to be admissible, it must provide at least some backing for the
allegations it makes about violations of the Convention by the State concerned. If this is lacking,
the communication does not comply with article 22 of the Convention and is therefore
inadmissible. In the present case, the author has not established substantial grounds for believing
that he personally would be in danger of being subjected to torture if he returned to India.
4.9
The State party recognizes that India’s human rights record has given rise to considerable
concern. Nevertheless, the situation in India and, in particular in the Punjab, has significantly
improved in recent years, as shown in the United States Department of State Country Report on
Human Rights Practices for 1997 concerning India, published on 30 January 1998. Since the
new Government took office in June 1996, a number of steps have been taken to ensure greater
respect for human rights in India. For example, the Government signed the Convention on
14 October 1997 and announced its intention to take steps to prevent and punish acts of torture
on its territory.
4.10 In February 1997, four experts on the Punjab provided information to the Immigration
and Refugee Board on various issues relating to human rights, peace and order in India.
According to these experts, the central Government has for several years been trying to bring the
Punjabi police, who have been responsible for many extrajudicial executions and disappearances
during the fight against insurgents, to heel. While in the late 1980s and early 1990s a blind eye
was turned to police abuses, it is now recognized, particularly by the Ministry of the Interior and
the Supreme Court in New Delhi, that the Punjabi police need to be brought under control. As a
result, many cases against Punjabi police officers have been reopened. However, the experts say
that the climate of impunity that protects the Punjabi police will change only slowly, because the
problem is a long-standing one, rooted in firmly entrenched attitudes.
4.11 According to one of the experts, the use of force is part of the culture of the Punjabi
police, who still have the power to commit many unacceptable acts without being held
accountable. For example, they still have the power to take people to the police station and
mistreat them. Police torture is endemic in India. Another of the experts emphasized that,
although the ill-treatment meted out to detainees in Punjab is serious, it is no worse than
elsewhere in India today. The experts also pointed out that those who are not suspected of being
leading activists are not at risk in Punjab today, and have considerably better access to the legal
system if they do suffer ill-treatment.
4.12 As regards the possible risks faced by those returned to India by Canada, one of the
experts stated that representatives of the Canadian High Commission in New Delhi regularly
observed the arrival of persons deported from Canada at the airport. There have been eight or
ten such cases in recent years and the Indian authorities have left all these people alone, apart
from one leader of the Khalistan Commando Force, who was arrested. The expert also stated
that in the last few years, Canadian High Commission staff in New Delhi have held immigration
interviews with many dependants of people from the Punjab to whom Canada has granted