Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Oct 15: As the inspection reports of various jails conducted by the Principal District Judges (PDJs) of their respective districts revealed awful and horrendous situation of these jails and jail inmates therein, the High Court today directed the authorities for bringing down this situation of jails and providing all facilities to jail inmates.
It is in pursuance of Court direction wherein all the District Judges of the State were directed to regularly and properly conduct the inspection of the jails of their jurisdiction to ascertain the condition of the prisoners, the District Judges of various districts have submitted their visiting reports which divulges glaring situation of various jails and after perusal of these reports, the Division Bench of Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Alok Aradhe directed all the concerned authorities to control this kind of situation in jails and provide all requisite facilities to the jail inmates.
It is under Criminal Procedure Code and pronouncements of Supreme Court as also by this court relating to the prisoners, the district Judges are required to regularly and properly conduct the inspection of the Jails.
After the attention of the court was drawn towards these visiting reports, court has sought Action Taken and for providing of all facilities to the jail inmates in different jails as the reports of PDJs from various districts have revealed glaring situation of jails and jails inmates.
In its report, PDJ Anantnag stated that there is no doctor in sub-jail Anantnag even as no water purifier is installed for prisoners and prisoners are taking contaminated water which comes from hilly areas.
From PDJ Kargil, it was stated that there is no jail in the district and under trials of this district are being taken to district Leh which is 220 Kms away from Kargil and with this practice almost 5 hours are wasted by the authorities for their trial.
From the report of PDJ Poonch, Court has been informed that the jail in the said district is under renovation and its jail inmates are brought to Rajouri, Kathua and Hiranagar for facing trial in different case, resulting into no schedule is given to under trials for their genuine trial in which they are involved. Court directed the authorities to ensure all necessary renovation of the jail and provide all the facilities to the inmates.
With regard to District Bandipora, it has been informed that there is also no jail and the prisoners are being brought to Kupwara and Srinagar to face the trials causing great inconvenience to the jail inmates.
Condition of some jail inmates in central jail Srinagar has also been brought to the notice of the court for which court directed the SSP to ensure every possible treatment is given to the prisoners.
Meantime, District Legal Services Authority today informed the Court that in-terms of previous direction a copy of the amended jail manual has been received from Delhi Legal Services Authority and DLSA counsel has been asked to provided the copy of the same to State Counsel for examination and suggestions.
The draft of jail manual which was later finalized for Delhi with regard to conditions of jails in Delhi has been undertaken under the aegis of the Member Secretary, Delhi Legal Services Authority. The visiting reports are being brought online to the Registry of the court and Central Project Coordinator e-Courts has been directed to take steps for the development of appropriate software at the earlier so that proper scrutiny of the compliance can effectively be conducted.
Direction is already in force on the authorities to ensure that the inmates of the jail who are facing trial in different courts are produced before the court whenever production is directed by the trial court.
The District State Legal Services Authority is also under direction to ensure that inspection is conducted and report with regard to conditions of jails shall be placed before the Court.
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