No narco test without consent, says Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Wednesday declared as "illegal" use of narco-analysis, brain-mapping and polygraph tests on suspects.

A bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan said that involuntarily subjecting an accused, a suspect or a witness to such techniques violates Article 20 (3) of the Constitution, which prohibits self-incrimination.

The bench also comprising Justices R V Raveendran and Dalveer Bhandari said if anything obtained by the investigators from such techniques in which a person had volunteered, the agencies can use them for further probe.