Article 20(3) (Indian Constitution)
Definition
The constitutional provision that states no person accused of any offence shall be compelled to be a witness against themselves. India's Supreme Court in Selvi v State of Karnataka interpreted this to cover compelled narco-analysis, polygraph, and BEAP testing, on the ground that each procedure compels a mental contribution that may incriminate the subject.
Related terms
- Brain Electrical Activation Profile (BEAP / P300 test)
- A method that uses electroencephalography (EEG) to detect the P300 event-related potential, a positive-going brainwave that occurs approximately 300 milliseconds after a...
- Narco-analysis
- A technique in which a subject is administered a barbiturate or benzodiazepine drug (commonly sodium pentothal or midazolam) to induce a hypnotic...
- Polygraph
- An instrument that simultaneously records multiple physiological channels including blood pressure, respiration rate, galvanic skin response, and sometimes heart rate while the...
- Section 23, Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam 2023 (discovery rule)
- The provision (successor to Section 27 of the Indian Evidence Act 1872) under which information given by a person in police custody...
- Selvi v State of Karnataka
- A 2010 decision of the Supreme Court of India in which a three-judge bench held unanimously that compulsory administration of narco-analysis, polygraph,...
Explained in
- Narco-Analysis, Polygraph and Brain Mapping in LawThe constitutional provision that states no person accused of any offence shall be compelled to be a witness against themselves. India's Supreme Court in Selvi...