The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : "Provide proper facilities for prisoners"

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 08, 2006
ePaper

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

"Provide proper facilities for prisoners"

Special Correspondent

Court directs authorities to abstain from handcuffing prisoners on parole

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has directed the Puducherry Government to uphold the basic rights of prisoners by providing them with proper toilet facilities at the Central Prison in Puducherry, and abstaining from handcuffing prisoners on parole.

Passing orders on a letter from a life convict, which was treated as a public interest litigation petition, a Division Bench comprising P. Sathasivam and Justice S. Tamilvanan said: "A prisoner, be he a convict or undertrial or a detenue, does not cease to be a human being. Even when lodged in the jail, he continues to enjoy all his fundamental rights, including the right to life guaranteed to him under the Constitution ... Right to life means the right to live with basic human dignity."

P. Bharathi, a life convict in the Central Prison in Puducherry, wrote in February 2005, stating that even when he was taken to attend the last rites of his father in 2001, his right hand was handcuffed with a lead chain. He had also narrated other grievances relating to basic amenities.

The Bench then directed the Chief Judge of Puducherry to visit the prison and submit a report on the allegations as well as the general conditions inside the prison. While giving a clean chit to the prison administration with regard to ventilation and water facilities, the Chief Judge had mentioned that for the benefit of prisoners, who were locked up continuously from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., two plastic buckets with lid were provided to collect human excreta during night hours. He called for some effective steps to provide water-seal latrine facility to the inmates.

The Division Bench directed the Government to remedy the situation by installing Indian water closet pan, with flush type toilet, in all cells in the Central Prison.

The new prison, coming up at a cost of Rs.8.39 crore on a 35-acre land in Kalapet, shall have all modern facilities, they said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu