HC seeks details of docs in state jails

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court (HC) has asked Maharashtra prison authorities to provide details of availability of qualified medical staff and health workers in prison hospitals after it was informed of deaths of prisoners and jail staff in the second wave of Covid-19 in the state. The query was prompted after the court was informed Taloja Central prison had only three Ayurvedic doctors.

The court further sought to know from the Centre and state as to whether having Aadhaar card was mandatory for prisoners to be eligible for vaccination and also took note of suggestions by People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL) to ask the state level high-power committee (HPC) to convene a meeting and decide on relaxing its guidelines further to decongest jails.

The division bench of chief justice Dipankar Datta and justice Girish Kulkarni, while hearing the suo motu public interest litigation (PIL) instituted after taking cognisance of a news report that the number of Covid positive cases among prisoners and jail staff had gone up from 47 to 200 in a month during the second wave, was informed by advocate general Ashutosh Kumbhakoni that various measures had been initiated to safeguard prison inmates.

He said only 244 prisoners and 170 jail staff were currently undergoing treatment for Covid-19, among the 35,000 prisoners across jails in the state. He also said that school and hostel premises that had been requisitioned earlier for setting up temporary prisons were taken over again to decongest jails.

Seeking responses from the authorities, HC posted further hearing to May 4.