Supreme Court of India
RE-INHUMAN CONDITIONS IN 1382 PRISONS versus . on 8 May 2018
[2018] 4 S.C.R. 461
RE-INHUMAN CONDITIONS IN 1382 PRISONS(Writ Petition (Civil) No. 406 of 2013)
MAY 08, 2018
[MADAN B. LOKUR AND DEEPAK GUPTA, JJ.]
Prison: Under trial – Implementation of Standard OperatingProcedure (SOP) for Under Trial Review Committee – Overcrowdingin prisons – High courts to take up the issue of overcrowding inprisons as a suo moto writ petition – Vacancies in the prison staff –High Court to look into this issue as a suo moto writ petition –Government of India is conducting a study through the NationalLaw University on women prisoners and their children – Ministrywill consider the study report – State Government to notify andimplement Model Rules called Model Uniform Rules for theAdministration of Open Correctional Institutions – StateGovernments to try and utilize the existing capacity of these openprisons and if necessary increase the existing capacity of these openprisons in due course of time – Matter to be listed on 2.8.2018.
CIVIL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION : Writ Petition (Civil)No. 406 of 2013.
Under Article 32 of the Constitution of India.
A. N. S. Nadkarni, ASG, Vibha Dutta Makhija, Sr. Adv., SaurabhMishra, Ms. Aishwarya Bhati, S. S. Shamshery, AAGs, Gaurav Agrawal(AC), R. M. Bajaj, Ms. Binu Tamta, R. Bala, Ms. Sushma Suri,B. K. Prasad, Ms. Sushma Manchanda, M. K. Maroria, Ms. AartiSharma, Santosh Kr. Vishwakarma, B. V. Balaram Das, GunturPrabhakar, Ms. Prerna Singh, Gautam Prabhakar, Shuvodeep Roy, SayoojMohandas M., M. Shoeb Alam, Ms. Fauzia Shakil, Ujjwal Singh, MojahidKarim Khan, Atul Jha, Sandeep Jha, Dharmendra Kumar Sinha,Anshuman Srivastava, S. S. Rebello, Apoorva Bhumesh, Ms. HemantikaWahi, Ms. Mamta Singh, Ms. Vishakha, Ms. Shodhika Sharma,Ms. Pallavi Baghel, Ajay Marwah, Mool Singh, B. K. Satija, Sanjay Kr.Visen, Tapesh Kumar Singh, Mohd. Waquas, Aditya Pratap Singh,V. N. Raghupathy, Parikshit P. Angadi, C. K. Sasi, Arjun Garg, MahalingPandarge, Nishant R. Katneshwarkar, Leishangthem Roshmani Kh.,Ms. Maibam Babina, Ranjan Mukherjee, Daniel Stone Lyngdoh,
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AK. V. Kharlyndoh, K. N. Madhusoodhanan, Nitya Madhusoodhanan,T. G. Narayanan Nair, Mrs. K. Anatoli Sema, Edward Belho, AmitKumar Singh, K. Luikang Michael, Z. H. Isaac Haiding, Ms. AninditaPujari, Ms. Kavita Bhardwaj, Ashok Panigrahi, Ms. Uttara Babbar,Ms. Akanksha Choudhary, Ms. Bhavna Duhoon, Amit Sharma, SandeepSingh, Ankit Raj, Ms. Ruchi Kohli, Ms. Pragati Neekhra, Aruna Mathur,BAvneesh Arputham, Ms. Anuradha Arputham, Ms. Simran Jeet (forM/s. Arputham Aruna & Co.), Shuvodeep Roy, Rituraj Biswas,M. Yogesh Kanna, Sujatha Bagadhi, Garvesh Kabra, Ms. RachanaSrivastava, Ms. Monika, Ms. Sudipta, Suhaan Mukerji, Harsh HirooGusahanbi, Vishal Prasad, Ms. Astha Sharma, Amjid Maqbool, AmitCVerma (for PLR Chamers and Co.), Bhupesh Narula, K. V. Jagdishvaran,Mrs. G. Indira, M. S. Doabia, S. S. Rawat, V. G. Pragasam, S. PrabuRamasubramanian, S. Manuraj, T. N. Rama Rao, Hitesh Kumar Sharma,T. Veera Reddy, Ms. Ritu Kumar, Ms. Pragya Singh, Satya Mitra, KamalMohan Gupta, P. Venkat Reddy, PRashant Kr. Tyagi (for M/s. VenkatPalwai Law Associates), Pukhrambam Ramesh Kumar, HimanshuDAgarwal, Yash S. Vijay, Advs. for the appearing parties.
The following Order of the Court was passed :
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O R D E R
We have seen the Note of Hearing submitted by learned amicusEcuriae.
We have heard learned amicus curiae as well as learned AdditionalSolicitor General and other learned counsel.
There are six issues for consideration today:F1. Under Trial Review Committee It is stated by Mr. Surinder S. Rathi, Director, NALSA that theStandard Operating Procedure (SOP) for Under Trial Review Committeeis ready.
Learned amicus curiae says that he will look into it and perhapsGhave some further discussion with NALSA.In any event, the SOP will be finalized on or before 30[th] June,2018.
As soon as the SOP is finalized, it should be circulated to all theHDistrict Judges and Under Trial Review Committees for implementation.
If and when there are some constraints in the implementation ofthe SOP, it should be brought to the notice of NALSA so that necessaryor corrective measures can be taken.
No further orders are required to be passed on this issue.
We compliment Mr. Rathi and others in NALSA associated in thedrafting of the SOP and place on record our appreciation for their efforts.
2. Overcrowding in Prisons
It appears from the Note given by learned amicus curiae thatthe issue of overcrowding in prisons is not being taken seriously by theprison authorities. There are several prisons where the overcrowding iswell beyond 100% and in some cases it exceeds 150%.
In our opinion, this matter should be considered by each HighCourt independently with the assistance of the State Legal ServicesAuthority/ High Court Legal Services Committee so that there is somesanity in the overcrowding in prisons since it involves violation of humanrights.
Under the circumstances, we request the Chief Justice of everyHigh Court to take up the issue of overcrowding in prisons as a suomoto writ petition.
The Secretary General should send a copy of this order to theRegistrar General of every High Court for necessary steps in this regardand report back to us.
3. Vacancies in the prisons staff
From the Note of learned amicus curiae, we find that once againthere is little interest being shown by the prison authorities and the StateGovernments to recruit staff in prisons. This, of course, has its ownimpact on prison administration.
Looking to the Note of learned amicus curiae, we are of opinionthat this matter should also be taken up by each High Court.
Accordingly, we request the Chief Justice of every High Court totake up this matter as a suo moto writ petition.
The Secretary General should send a copy of this order to theRegistrar General of every High Court for necessary steps in this regardand report back to us.
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A4. Women prisoners and their children
Learned Additional Solicitor General informs us that the Ministryof Women and Child Development, Government of India is conducting astudy through the National Commission for Women and the NationalLaw University, Delhi on women prisoners and their children. He saysBthat as per his information the Study will be completed by 30[th] June,2018 and the Ministry would thereafter like to look into the Study andtake necessary steps. He further says that the consideration will takeabout 2 or 3 weeks.
For this purpose, list the matter on 2[nd] August, 2018.C5. Training Manuals The Bureau of Police Research and Development has preparedsome training manuals for the prison officers and prison warders.
We expect the National Police Academy and the State PoliceDAcademies to take advantage of the excellent effort put in by the Bureauof Police Research and Development and conduct training coursesappropriately.
As and when the Bureau of Police Research and Developmentfeels it necessary to prepare other training manuals for the benefit of theprison staff, it is, of course, at liberty to do so, but should bring it to theEnotice of learned amicus curiae for information.
No further orders are required to be passed on this issue.
6. Open Prisons
It is stated by learned Additional Solicitor General that steps areFbeing taken to encourage setting up of open prisons.
In fact, Model Rules called the Model Uniform Rules for theAdministration of Open Correctional Institutions have been framed.
As far as the Union of India is concerned, these Rules are final.GLearned Additional Solicitor General says that these Model Rules willbe circulated to all the State Governments for notification andimplementation.
We expect that on receipt of these Model Rules, necessary stepswill be taken by the State Governments to notify and implement theseRules faithfully and sincerely.H
It is submitted by learned amicus curiae that there are alreadyA63 open prisons in different parts of the country, but the existing capacityis not being fully utilized.
We expect the State Governments concerned to not only try andutilize the existing capacity of these open prisons and if necessary increasethe existing capacity of these open prisons in due course of time. TheState Governments and Union Territory Administrations should alsoseriously consider the feasibility of establishing open prisons in as manylocations as possible.
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List the matter on 2[nd] August, 2018.
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Devika Gujral
Directions issued.
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