Khushi Gupta
Published on: May 4, 2022 at 14:28 IST
The Ministry of Home Affairs has asked States and Prison Authorities across the Country to keep an appropriate oversight on the literature available in Prison libraries to ensure that inmates are not negatively influenced.
Ministry of Home Affairs said that, “Effective steps should be taken to prevent prisons from becoming breeding grounds for Anti-national activities, for which regular inspection of prisons may be conducted”.
A Mumbai Special Court, while allowing Activist Sudha Bhardwaj to access five books per month in January last year arrested in Bhima Koregaon Violence Case had said that Jail authorities cannot refuse to accept books sent for prisoners but they can go through the contents to ensure there is no objectionable material.
The Jail Authorities have been asked “To restrict unnecessary movement of Jail staff in and out by maintaining proper entry and exit registers. Subsequently, Jail structure and periphery walls of all jails may be inspected, and to the extent possible, it may be ensured that distance between the outer wall and the walls of jail ward are designed in such a manner that incidents of throwing contraband items from outside the jail are not possible”.