State seeks HC directives on decongesting prisons

The Maharashtra government, today, told the Bombay High Court that it proposes to decongest jails across the state in view of the sudden surge in COVID19 cases within prisons. It told the high court that it would again release eligible prisoners on emergency parole and bail.

Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Girish Kulkarni were hearing a suo motu public interest litigation (PIL) on the spike in COVID-19 cases within Maharashtra prisons. The suo motu PIL was taken on April 14 after the Free Press Journal and the Hindustan Times newspapers reported about 198 inmates across 47 prisons across Maharashtra testing positive for the virus.

The bench said, "Our suggestions/directions would pave the way to save the lives of the inmates of correctional homes and instill in them a sense of confidence that the state, of which the judiciary is a part, is also concerned about their well-being." "The state to ensure, to the extent possible within its means, that no life of an inmate or a staff member is lost in the battle against

COVID-19," the bench ordered. The bench took into account the death of a 51year-old Kamal Ahmed Mohammed Vakil Ansari, a 2006 Mumbai serial train blast convict, serving life sentence, who died on Monday in a government hospital in Nagpur after contracting the virus in the Nagpur central prison.

The bench, while hearing the matter, noted that it is not the inmates, but the jail staff that carries the infection inside the prisons. While going through the affidavit submitted by advocate general Ashutosh Kumbhakoni, it noted that jails, such Yerwada, Kolhapur and a few others, are ‘extremely’ overcrowded and that the state must consider decongesting the prisons. Yerwada, which has a capacity to hold 2,449 inmates, currently has 6,170 inmates

The judges sought to know why the open jails started at 35 districts in the state were underutilised. To this, AG Kumbhakoni said that only those inmates, who are eligible, get lodged in such jails. During the hearing, judges suggested that the authorities could test the accused once on the arrest and for the second time when they are sent to judicial custody (lodged in jail).