Mahima
The Bombay High Court has issued directions to unclog barracks and tackle surge of covid cases in state prisons.
The Court directed that immediately after the arrest of the individual, the police officer shall arrange for his or her Rapid Antigen and RT-PCR test.
The Court further directed that if the accused is above 45, he or she should be sent to the nearest vaccination centre for vaccination without fail.
The Court also restricts the personal presence of undertrial prisoners in courts.
The Court directed implementation of previous order of the Supreme Court which prohibited physical presence of all undertrial prisoners to rule out ‘outside transmission of covid’.
The Supreme Court order rather directed the presence of undertrial prisoners via video conferencing for all purposes.
The bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Girish Kulkarni passed the above directions in the suo moto public interest litigation concerning alarming rise of Covid-19 cases.
The High Court further directs that no inmate shall be incarcerated until the covid test report is negative and if the accused tests positive, he shall be lodged in temporary prisons or COVID Care Centres.
State advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni said that the proposal for creating a new prison is pending. Even after the release of numerous inmates on emergency bails or paroles, there are 35,125 inmates across 47 state prisons as against the capacity of 23,217 inmates.
The Court further directed state to identify undertrial and convicted prisoners lodged freshly and eligible for temporary 45-day release under previous year’s high power committee’s recommendation to unclog prisons during pandemic.
The State proposed to reclaim 36 buildings of educational institutions and convert them to temporary prison but only 14 were claimed.
The Court directed the Home Secretary to ensure that remaining buildings are also reclaimed and that the temporary prisons be converted into COVID Care Centres for treating infected inmates.
There are 188 active cases in state prisons.