TMI Blog1979 (12) TMI 147X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... be alerted for appropriate action. Surely, The conduct of the prosecution cannot be entrusted to one who has condemned it in advance. - Writ Petition No. 1009 of 1979 - - - Dated:- 20-12-1979 - KRISHNAIYER, V.R., , PATHAK, R.S. AND REDDY, O. CHINNAPPA, JJ. For the Petitioner : Dr. Y. S. Chitale and Mukul Mudgal For the Respondent: Soli 1. Sorabjee, Solicitor General of India, and R. N. Sachthey JUDGMENT: KRISHNA IYER, J.- This writ petition originated, epistolary fashion in a letter by a prisoner, Batra, to a Judge of this' Court (one of us), complaining of a brutal assault by a Head Warder on another prisoner, Prem Chand. Forms were forsaken since freedom was at stake and the letter was posted on the Bench to be metamorphosed into a habeas proceeding and was judicially navigated with electric creativity, thanks to the humanist scholarship of Dr. Y. S. Chitale as amicus Curiae and the erudite passion for affirmative court action of Shri Soli Sorabjee, the learned Solicitor General. Where the prison process is dehumanized, forensic help, un-deflected by the negative crudities of the adversary system, makes us dare where we might have daunted. The finest hour of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... al institution overcrowding, understaffing unsanitary facilities, brutality, constant fear of violence, lack of adequate medical and mental health care, poor food service, intrusive correspondence restrictions, inhumane isolation, segregation, inadequate or non-existent rehabilitative and/or educational programs, deficient recreational opportunities-violate the Eighth Amendment ban on "cruel and unusual punishments." The essence of the matter is that in our era of human rights consciousness the habeas writ has functional plurality and the constitutional regard for human decency and dignity is tested by this capability. We ideologically accept the words of Will Durant(a). "It is time for all good men to come to the aid of their party, whose name is civilization." Likewise, we endorse, as part of our constitutional thought, what the British Government's White Paper, titled 'People in Prison', stated with telling effect: A society that believes in the worth of individual beings can have the quality of its belief judges, at least in part, by the quality of its prison and probate services and of the resources made available to them. The learned Solicitor General brought this key-n ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... har Central Jail, came to know of a crime of torture practised upon another prisoner, Prem Chand, allegedly by a jail warder, Maggar Singh, as a means to extract money from the victim through his visiting relations. Batra braved the consequences of Jail indignation and brought the incident to the ken of the Court, resulting in these proceedings which, though not strictly traditional, are clearly in the nature of habeas corpus writs and therefore, within the wider sweep of Art. 32. The court issued notice to the State and the concerned officials, appointed Dr. Y. S. Chitale and Shri Mukul Mudgal as amicus, authorised them to visit the prison, meet the prisoner and see relevant documents and interview necessary witnesses so as to enable them to inform themselves about the surrounding circumstances and the cruel scenario of events. Counsel on both sides have sensitized the issue of prison justice admirably and catalysed the cause of jail reforms effectively. The democratic hope of the procession is its 'people's orientation, not its lucrative potential nor its intellectual intricacies. And service in the field of the handicapped human sectors, like prisoners, is a social justice contr ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Sunday 26th August, 1979. He was brought by some warder. He was complaining of bleeding from boils on the buttocks. This was also told by the warder who brought him. He was given the required treatment as he was kept under observation on his request. Next day during the ward rounds when I examined him, he was having tears of anus and bleeding. On inquiring he told that this has happened due to forced insertion of as stick into his anus. Then he was referred to Irwin Hospital for further treatment. Can human nature be such rubber ? More than the probity of the investigation and the veracity of the doctor are at stake-hope in human integrity without which human dignity will be the first casualty. These observations are not impressionistic but we leave it at that since our primary purpose is to protect the person of the prisoner, not to prosecute the offender. We do nat wish to prejudice that process. Regrettably, the 'hearsay' affidavit of the Under Secretary (Home), Delhi Administration, Shri Nathu Ram, blinks at the jail vices and merely dresses up the official version without so much as an inquisitorial audit of the lurid happenings in a premier correctional instituti ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ate of intoxication because of taking Mandrix tablets which he admitted before the Deputy Superintendent, he was kept in a cell pending orders of the Superintendent. Central Jail. He was taken to the jail hospital the next day i.e. On 26-8-79 on a report from the above said prisoner as he had pain in his anus and was bleeding. The prisoner remained admitted into the jail hospital upto 27-8-79, 2 p.m. when the Dr. V. K. Kapoor, Medical officer, recommended for the shifting of this prisoner to the Irwin Hospital with the report mentioned in the petition. The prisoner Prem Chand was shifted accordingly by Shri Bachan Singh, Assistant Superintendent on duty on 27-8-79. The undersigned was informed that a case u/s 385 IPC had been registered against warder Maggar Singh in- charge of the ward No. 11 i.e. 40 cells with the police station Janak puri and investigation had started in this case. The result of the investigation is still awaited. The prisoner was, however, received back in the jail on 29-8-79 on being discharged from the Irwin Hospital. The prisoner, Prem Chand, was kept in a 'punishment cell' which, according to counsel for the Administration, was not as bad as a solitary ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the prisoners are under-trials who have to face their case in court and are presumably innocent until convicted. By being sent to Tihar Jail they are, by contamination, made criminals-a custodial perversity which violates the test of reasonableness in Art. 19 and of fairness in Art. 21. How cruel would it be if one went to a hospital for a checkup and by being kept along with contagious cases came home with a new disease ! We sound the tocsin that prison reform is not a constitutional compulsion and its neglect may lead to drastic court action. It would appear that around 300 persons are taken in and out daily between the prison and the courts. And when there arc political agitations. and consequent police arrests and remand to custody, the under-trial strength swells in numbers. Since many officers busy themselves with production of prisoners in court, the case of the Superintendent is that the other prisoners "try to do mischief, make thefts of other prisoners who go on work, smuggle things and even resort to assaults." To sum up, the Tihar prison is an arena of tension ,trauma, tantrums and crimes of violence, vulgarity and corruption. And to cap it all, there occurs the co ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ome time in Tihar. Not only did he have all. the facilities, but he could also go out of the jail whenever he liked; at times he would be out for several days and travel even upto Calcutta. All this of course, cost a lot of money. An even richer prisoner was Ram Kishan Dalmia, he spent most of his jail term in hospital. He was known for his generosity to jail authorities, and one doctor received a car as a gift. But more than businessmen it was the smugglers jailed in Tihar who were lavish spenders. Their food came from Moti Mahal and their whisky from Connaught Place. They had not only wine but also women "Babuji, not tarts but real society girls," one warder said. The women would be brought in when "the Sahiblog" went home for lunch, and their empty offices became "recreation rooms." Corruption in jail was so well organised and so systematic that everything, went like clockwork once the price had been paid. Jail employees at almost all levels were involved, and everyone's share was fixed. There was never a dispute; there has to be the proverbial honour among thieves.' One wonders whether such an indictment made by an established A writer had inclined the Government at least ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... p, the police were asked to bring in boys to help with the chores. For the past several days, the warder said, jail authorities had been pestering the police to get more helpers as the number of detenus had gone up. The evening before, when the boy was buying paan (betel leaf) from a Defence Colony shop, the police had hauled him up as a vagabond; they were responding to the jail authorities' appeal to book more helpers. "This is nothing new, it has always been like this," the warder explained. Several undertrial boys later related to me their tales of woe, how they were arrested on trumped up charges and how they were being held in detention on one pretext or another. We may, at this stage, go in greater detail into the functional expansion of habeas corpus writs in the current milieu especially because counsel on both sides have compellingly contended for an authoritative pronouncement by this court in favour of a broader jurisdiction. We have earlier noticed that this valuable writ is capable of multiple uses as developed in the American Jurisdiction. Such is the view expressed by many legal writers. In Harvard Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Law Review, the view has been ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... writ in the American jurisdiction. Incidentally and interestingly, there is reference to some States in the United States experimenting with programmes of allowing senior law students to service the penitentiaries. At a later stage, when we concretise definite directives, we may have occasion to refer to the use of senior law students for rendering legal aid to prisoners; and so it is worthwhile extracting a passage from Johnson v. Avery (supra) with reference to the Kansas Law School Programme in Prisons at Leavenworth: The experience at Leavenworth has shown that there have been very few attacks upon the (prison) administration; that prospective frivolous litigation has been screened out and that where the law school felt the prisoner had a good cause of action relief was granted in a great percentage of cases. A large part of the activity was disposing of long outstanding detainers lodged against the inmates. In addition, the programme handles civil matters such as domestic relations problems and compensation claims. Even where there has been no tangible success, the fact that the inmate had someone on the outside listen to him and analyse his problems had a most beneficial ef ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... lution of the problems of jail justice, despite the touch of jurisprudential novelty and call to judicial creativity. We must formulate the points argued before we proceed to state our reasoning and record our conclusions. 1. Has the court jurisdiction to consider prisoners' grievance, not demanding release but, within the incarceratory circumstances, complaining of ill-treatment and curtailment short of illegal detention? Yes. We have answered it. 2. What are the broad contours of the fundamental rights, especially Arts. 14, 19 and 21 which belong to a detainee sentenced by Court? Here too, the ground has been covered. 3. What judicial remedies can be granted to prevent and punish their breach and to provide access to prison justice? 4. What practicable prescriptions and proscriptions bearing on prison practices can be drawn up by the court consistently with the existing provisions of the Prisons Act and Rules bent to shape to con form to Part III ? 5. What prison reform perspectives and strategies should be adopted to strengthen, in the long run, the constitutional mandates and human rights imperatives? The canvas was spread wide by counsel and court and we deal with ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... uation, a Constitution Bench of this Court (Batra and Sobraj) did imprison the powers of prison officials to put an under-trial under iron fetters or confine in solitary cells convicts with death sentences under appeal. Once jurisdiction is granted-and we affirm in unmistakable terms that the court has, under Art. 32 and so too under Art. 226, a clear power and, therefore, a public duty to give relief to sentences in prison settings-the next question is the jurisprudential backing for the play of that jurisdiction. Here again, Batra has blazed the trial, and it binds. Are prisoners persons? Yes, of course. To answer in the negative is to convict the nation and the Constitution of dehumanization and to repudiate the world legal order, which now recognises rights of prisoners in the International Covenant of Prisoners' Rights to which our country has signed assent. In Batra's case, this Court has rejected the hands-off doctrine and it has been ruled that fundamental lights do not flee the person as he enters the prison although they may suffer shrinkage necessitated by incarceration. Our constitutional culture has now crystalized in favour of prison justice and judicial jurisdict ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ake clear what is intended in the imposition of the sentence. Every sentence should be couched in terms similar to a mandatory injunction. In this manner, the penology system is to be held to account if the government does not faithfully execute the order. In other words, the sentencing court should be required to retain jurisdiction to ensure that the prison system responds to the purposes of the sentence. If it does not, the sentencing court could arguably have the authority to demand compliance with the sentence or even order the prisoner released for non-compliance. Whether inside prison or outside, a person shall not be deprived of his guaranteed freedom save by methods 'right, just and fair'. Bhagwati J. in Maneka Gandhi observed. The principle of reasonableness, which legally as well as philosophically, is an essential element of equality or non arbitrariness pervades Article 14 like a brooding omnipresence and the procedure contemplated by Article 21 must answer the test of reasonableness in order to be in conformity with Art. 14. It must be "right and just and fair" and not arbitrary, fanciful or oppressive; otherwise it would be no procedure at all and the requireme ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... to physical manhandling by any jail official, that the shameful and painful torture to which he has been subjected-a blot on Government's claim to protect human rights-shall be ended and the wound on his person given proper medical care and treatment. The Central Government will, we are sure, direct its Jail staff not show too pachydermic a disposition for a democratic government. For example, specific guidelines before punishing a prisoner had been given in Batra's case and yet the prisoner Prem Chand has been lodged in the punishment cell, which is almost the same as a solitary cell, with cavalier disregard for procedural safeguards. Merely to plead that many prisoners are 'habituals' is no ground for habitual violation of law by officials. We direct that Prem Chand be released from the punishment cell and shall not be subjected to such severity until fair procedure is complied with. The chronic callousness of the Prison System to- the humane demands of the Constitution, despite the fact that many ministers over many decades in many States have known the unbroken tradition of prison sub-culture and despite prison diaries of national figures from Jawaharlal Nehru to Jay Praka ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... urse and you swear to make them recognise you. And, alas, it is seldom successful. In a culture of Antyodaya, the court must rescue the weakest by preemptive guidance without driving parties to post facto litigation. In law as in medicine, prevention is better than cure, a rule jurisprudents have not sufficiently developed, and so we accede to the request of counsel and proceed to discuss the normative side of prison justice. C Before we begin this chapter we might as well set down what the learned Solicitor General stressed viz. that the detailed guidelines set out in the separate opinion in Batra's case (page 488 to 493) are the same as are implicit in the judgment of Desai J. speaking for the other Judges and this position should be re-emphasised by this court here so as to avoid misconception. Desai J. has stated Justice Krishna Iyer has delivered an elaborate judgment which deals with important issues raised before us at great length and with great care and concern. We have given a separate opinion, not because we differ with him on fundamentals, but because we thought it necessary to express our views on certain aspects of the questions canvassed before us Likewise, in the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... aled into animal existence without the freshing flow of air, procedure. 'The meaning of 'life' given by Field J., approved in Kharak Singh' and Maneka Gandhi bears exception: Something more than mere animal existence. The inhibition against its deprivation extended to all those limbs and faculties by which life is enjoyed. The provision equally prohibits the mutilation of the body by the amputation of an arm. Or leg, or the putting out of an eye, or the destruction of any other organ of the body through which the soul communicates with the outer world Therefore, inside prisons are persons and their personhood, if crippled by law-keepers turning law-breakers, shall be forbidden by the Writ of this Court from such wrong doing. Fair procedure, in dealing with prisoners, therefor, calls for another dimensions of access to law-provision, within easy reach, of the law which limits liberty to persons who are prevented from moving out of prison gates. A handbook meets the logistics of the law in field. Of course, the prison staff also suffer from the pathology of misinformation or non-education about rights and limitations and this ignoratia juris situation leads to insensitivity to hu ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s to be appreciated even by the beneficiaries. Therefore, large notice boards displaying the rights and responsibilities on prisoners may be hung up in prominent places within the prison in the language of the people. We are dealing with the mechanics of bringing the law within the wakeful ken of the affected persons. Sec. 61 of the Prisons Act, simplied imaginatively leads to the same result. That section reads: "Copies of rules, under sections 59 and 60 so far as they affect the government of prisons, shall be exhibited, both in English and in the Vernacular, in some place to which all persons employed within a prison have access." We think it right to hold that copies of the Prison Manual shall be kept within ready reach of prisoners. Darkness never does anyone any good and light never any harm. Perhaps, the most important right of a prisoner is to the integrity of his physical person and mental personality. This Court in Batra's case has referred to the international wave of torture of prisoners found in an article entitled 'Minds Behind Bars'. That heightens our anxiety to solve the issue of prisoners' protection. The problem of law, when it is called upon to defen ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... y on the slightest summons. So, within the existing, dated legislation, new meanings must be read. Of course, new legislation is the best solution, but when lawmakers take for too long for social patience to suffer, as in this very case of prison reform, courts have to make-do with interpretation and carve on wood and sculpt on stone ready at hand and not wait for far away marble architecture. Counsel rivetted their attention on this pragmatic engineering and jointly helped the court to constitutionalise the Prisons Act prescriptions. By this legal energetics they desired the court to read into vintage provisions legal remedies. Primarily, the prison authority has the duty to given effect to the court sentence. (See for e.g. SS. 15 and 16 of the Prisoners Act, 1900). To give effect to the sentence means that it is illegal to exceed it and so it follows that a prison official who goes beyond more imprisonment or deprivation of locomotion and assaults or otherwise compels the doing of things not covered by the sentence acts in violation of Art. 19. Punishments of rigorous imprisonment oblige the inmates to do hard labour, not harsh labour and so a, vindictive officer victimising a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... a solace in insulation; and only a dehumanised system can derive vicarious delight in depriving prison inmates of this humane amenity. Subject, of course, to search and discipline and other security criteria, the right to society of fellow-men, parents and other family members cannot be denied in the light of Art. 19 and its sweep. Moreover the whole habilitative purpose of sentencing is to soften, not to harden, and this will be promoted by more such meetings. A sullen, forlorn prisoner is a dangerous criminal in the making and the prison is the factory! Sheldon Krantz rightly remarks: In 1973, the National Advisory Commission argued that prisoners should have a "right" to visitation. Task Force Report, Corrections (1973) at 66. It also argued that ' correctional officials should not merely tolerate visiting but should encourage it, particularly by families. Although the Commission recognised that regulations were necessary to contend with space problems and with security concerns, it proposed that priority be given to making visiting areas pleasant and unobtrusive. It also urged that corrections officials should not eavesdrop on conversations or otherwise interfere with the p ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ependence, accessibility and power to review and punish. Prison power, absent judicial watch tower, may tend towards torture. The Prisons Act and Rules need revision if a constitutionally and culturally congruous code is to be fashioned. The model jail manual, we are unhappy to say and concur in this view with the learned Solicitor General, is far from a model and is, perhaps, a product of prison officials insufficiently instructed in the imperatives of the Constitution and unawakened to the new hues of human rights. We accept, for the nonce, the suggestion of the Solicitor General that within the existing statutory framework the requirements of constitutionalism nay be read. He heavily relies on the need for a judicial agency whose presence, direct or by delegate, within the prison walls will deal with grievances. For this purpose, he relies on the Board of Visitors, their powers and duties, as a functional substitute for a Prison ombudsman. A controllerate is the desideratum for in situ reception and redressal or grievances. After all, the daily happenings, when they hurt harshly, have to be arrested forthwith, especially when it is the prison guards and the head warders who ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... essions Judges, District Magistrates and Sub-Divisional Magistrates among the members. The functions of visitors are enumerated in para 53, and 53-B and they include (a) inspect the barracks, cells, wards workshed and other buildings of the jail generally and the cooked food; (b) ascertain whether considerations of health, cleanliness, and security are. attended to, whether proper management and discipline are maintained in every respect, and whether any prisoner is illegally detained, or is detained for an undue length of time, while awaiting trial; (c) examine jail registers and records; (d) hear, attend to all representations and petitions made, by or on behalf of prisoners; and (e) direct, if deemed advisable, that any such representation or petitions be forwarded to Government. In the sensitive area of prison justice, the judicial members have special responsibilities and they must act as wholly independent overseers and not as ceremonial panelists. The judges are guardians of prisoners' rights because they have a duty to secure the execution of the sentences without excesses and to sustain the personal liberties of prisoners without violence on or violation of the inmates' ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... from prisoners and issuance of orders thereon after prompt enquiry. The District Magistrate must remember that in this capacity he is a judicial officer and not an executive head and must function as such independently of the prison executive. To make prisoners' rights in correctional institutions viable, we direct the District Magistrate concerned to inspect the jails in his district once every week receive complaints from individual prisoners and enquire into them immediately. If he is too preoccupied with urgent work, para graph 42 enables him to depute a magistrate subordinate to him to visit and inspect the jail. What is important is that he should meet the prisoners separately if they have grievances. The presence of warders or officials will be inhibitive and must be avoided. He must ensure that, his enquiry is confidential although subject to natural justice and does not lead to reprisals by jail officials. The rule speaks of the record of the result of each visit and inspection. This empowers him to enquire and pass orders. All orders issued by him shall be immediately complied with since obedience is obligated by para 44(2). In the event of non-compliance he should immed ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ation made to him by any prisoner". Nothing clearer is needed to empower these judicial officers to investigate and adjudicate upon grievances. We direct the Sessions Judges concerned, under his lock and seal, to keep a requisite number of grievance boxes in the prison and give necessary directions to The Superintendent to see that free access is afforded to put in complaints of encroachments, injuries or torture by any prisoner, where he needs remedial action. Such boxes shall hot be tampered with by any one and shall be opened only under the authority of the Sessions Judge. We need hardly emphasise the utmost vigilance and authority that the Sessions Judge must sensitively exercise in this situation since prisoner's personal liberty depends, in this undetectable campus upon his awareness, activism, adjudication and enforcement. Constitutional rights shall not be emasculated by the insouciance of judicial officers. The prison authorities shall not, in any manner, obstruct or noncooperate with reception or enquiry into the complaints otherwise, prompt punitive action must follow the High Court or the Supreme Court must be apprised of the grievance so that habeas corpus may issue ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e case of any violation of any fundamental right of a prisoner. The long journey through jail law territory proves that a big void exists in legal remedies for prisoner injustices and so constitutional mandates can become living companions of banished humans only if non-traditional procedures, duly oriented personnel and realistic reliefs meet the functional challenge. Broadly speaking, habeas corpus powers and administrative measures are the pillars of prisoners' rights. The former is invaluable and inviolable, but for an illiterate, timorous, indigent inmate community judicial remedies remain frozen. Even so, this constitutional power must discard formalities, dispense with full particulars and demand of the detainer all facts to decide if humane and fair treatment prevails, constitutionally sufficient and comporting with the minimum international standards for treatment of prisoners. Publicity within the prison community of court rulings in this area will go a long way to restore the morale of inmates and, hopefully, of the warders. So we direct the Delhi Administration to reach, in Hindi, the essentials of this ruling to the ken of the jail people. The stress that we lay is ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of a large number of undertrial prisoners roughly between 250-300 daily and their receiving back into the jail in the evening. (vi) The population of the jail having a large number of drugs addicts, habitual pickpockets having regular gangs outside to lookafter their interests legal and illegal both from outside. Other jails may compete with Tihar to bear the palm in bad treatment and so the problem is pan-Indian. That is why we have been persuaded by the learned Solicitor General to adventure into this undiscovered territory. The Indian Bar, and may be, the Bar Council of India and the academic community, must aid the court and country in this operation Prison Justice. In a democracy, a wrong to someone is a wrong to everyone and an unpunished criminal makes society vicariously guilty. This larger perspective validates our decisional range. Before we crystalise the directions we issue one paramount thought must be expressed. The goal of imprisonment is not only punitive but restorative, to make an offender a non-offender. In Batra's case this desideratum was stated and it is our constitutional law, now implicit in Art. 19 itself. Rehabilitation is a prized purpose of prison ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ruel E; punishment, is to promote more stress, more criminality, more desperate beastliness and is self-defeating though soothing to sadists. Hallock, a professor at the University of Wisconsin says: The stresses that lead to mental illness are often the same stresses that lead to crime. Mental illness always has a maladaptive quality, and criminality usually has a maladaptive quality. The final panacea for prison injustice is, therefore, more dynamic, far more positive, strategies by going back to man, the inner man The ward-warden relationship needs holistic repair if prisons are, in Gandhian terms, to become hospitals, if penology, as modern criminologists claim, is to turn therapeutic. The hope of society from investment in the penitentiary actualises only when the inner man within each man, doing the penance of prison life, transforms his outer values and harmonises the environmental realities with the infinite potential of his imprisoned being. Meditative experiments, follow-up researches and welcome results in many countries lend optimism to techniques of broadening awareness, deepening consciousness and quietening the psychic being. It is of seminal import ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... that social resources, helpful to humane treatment and mainstreaming, should be ploughed in, senior law students screened by the Dean of reputed Law Schools may usefully be deputed to interview prisoners, subject to security and discipline. The grievances so gathered can be fed back into the procedural mechanism viz. the District Magistrate or Sessions Judge. The Delhi Law School, we indicate, should be allowed to send selected students under the leadership of a teacher not only for their own clinical education but as prisoner-grievance-gathering agency. Other service organisation, with good credentials, should be encouraged, after due checking for security, to play a role in the same direction. The Prisons Act does provide for rule-making and issuance of instructions which can take care of this suggestion. Omega The omega of our judgment must take the shape of clear directives to the State and prison staff by epitomising the lengthy discussion. To clinch the issue and to spell out the precise directions is the next step. 1. We hold that Prem Chand, the prisoner, has been tortured illegally and the Superintendent cannot absolve himself from responsibility even though he may ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... int that any prisoner hear make". In practice, these rules have not been very effective in providing a forum for the prisoners to redress their grievances. There are a few non-official visitors who take up their duties conscientiously and listen to the grievances of the prisoners. But most of them take this appointment solely as Fl a post of honour and are somewhat reluctant to record hl the visitors' book any grievance of a prisoner which might cause embarrassment to the prison staff. The judicial officers, viz., the Sessions Judge and the Magistrates who are also ex- officio visitors do not discharge their duties effectively. We insist that the judicial officers referred to by us shall carry out their duties and responsibilities and serve as an effective grievance Mechanism. 6. No solitary or punitive cell, no hard labour or dietary change as painful additive, no other punishment or denial of privileges and amenities, no transfer to other prisons with penal consequences, shall be imposed without judicial appraisal of the Sessions Judge and where such intimation, on account of emergency, is difficult, such information shall be given within two days of the action. Conclusion ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... a public official shall have the right to complain to, and to have his case impartially examined by, the competent authorities of the State concerned. Article 9.-Wherever there is reasonable ground to believe that an act of torture as defined in article I has been committed, the competent authorities of the State concerned shall promptly proceed to an impartial investigation even if there has been no formal complaint. Dr. Chitale has handed up to us an American Civil Liberties Union Hand-book on the Rights of Prisoners. It rightly sets the sights of prison justice thus : As an institution, our penal and "correctional" system is an abject failure. The conditions in America's jails and prisons virtually ensure psychological impairment and physical deterioration for thousands of men and women each year. Reformation and rehabilitation is the rhetoric; systematic dehumanization is the reality. Public attention is directed only sporadically toward the subhuman conditions that prevail in these institutions, and usually only because the prisoners themselves have risked many more years in confinement, and in some cases even their lives, to dramatize their situation by protest. The ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... not only are the young housed with the older offenders, but those awaiting trial share the same quarters as convicted inmates. The latter individuals have little to lose in seeking sexual gratification through assault, for they have to serve their time any way .. As matters now stand, sex is unquestionable the most pertinent issue to the inmates' life behind bars. . . There is a great need to utilize the furlough system in corrections. Men with record showing good behaviour should be released for week ends at home with their Families and relatives. Farewell to this case is not final so far as the jailor and the police investigator are concerned. The former will stand his trial and shall receive justice. We say no more here. The investigator invites our displeasure and the Assistant Public Prosecutor, whom he consulted, makes us unhappy since we have had a perusal of the case diary. The crime alleged is simple, the material relied on is short and yet, despite repeated observations from the Bench the investigator has delayed dawdily the completion of the collection of evidence and the laying of the charge-sheet. The prisoner who is the victim has been repeatedly questioned under ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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