• The most exhausting/frustrating and laborious part of a criminal investigation is extracting information from an uncooperative alleged accused and suspects by investigators in India as well as the West. No individual should be forcibly subjected to any technique/method of interrogation in question, whether in the context of investigation in any criminal cases or otherwise.
• The narcoanalysis test began to be used with a presumption that it provides a simply, nonviolent method of finding out the truth. In a world where until quite recently, torture was employed in criminal cases, perhaps narcoanalysis is a simple, civilized way of conducting criminal investigation.
• The Supreme Court of India said that narcoanalysis, brain mapping and polygraph tests cannot be conducted on any person without their consent.
• The apex court further said the confession of guilt during the course of the tests cannot be treated as evidence in court.
• The results of narco test provided clues and did not have any evidentiary value.
• There is no scientific literature to prove truth serum works, human rights groups have held the tests to be mental torture.
• "The compulsory administration of any of these techniques is an unjustified intrusion into the mental privacy of an individual. It would also amount to 'cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment' with regard to the language of evolving international human rights norms," said a Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justices R V Raveendran and J M Panchal.
• The police, instead of collecting real evidence, relied on these tests to spread rumours about the suspect,” said Colin Gonsalves, Supreme Court advocate and director of Human Rights Law Network. “Selective leaks were made to the media that a particular suspect has made confession during the tests.”
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