Lucknow (ILNS): A PIL has been filed before the Allahabad High Court to make prisons less crowded by taking various effective measures considering the increasing cases of Corona and the health of the prisoners in the time of pandemic.
A bench of Justice Pritinker Diwakar and Justice Subhash Chandra Sharma heard this PIL yesterday and issued a notice to the state government to file its reply.
The PIL has been filed by Senior Advocate Dileep Kumar, for petitioner Man Mohan Mishra, who is a practising advocate at Allahabad High Court. It seeks direction to the Department of Prison Administration, Government of Uttar Pradesh, and the Uttar Pradesh High Powered Committee.
In his plea the petitioner has requested before the Court to consider the release of prisoners who are above the age of 65 years old or suffering from co morbidities in view of the Guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs on July 29. To make this effective the Court can ensure speedy trial and disposal of the bail applications, parole applications etc.
The petition states:
“The state of the prisons in the state are dismal. The rate of occupancy of 178 percent in the state prisons is concerning in view of the communicable pandemic. Despite of the monitoring of the Hon’ble Supreme Court and the High Powered Committee the occupancy has not fallen to the optimum standards.
Advocates Rajrshi Gupta and Vinayak Mithal, on behalf of the Petitioner, submitted: “Several applications for bail and appeal are pending before this court for the prisoners who are inhabitants of those high rate occupancy prisons. Due to the limited work flow of this Court the applications for those prisoners cannot be disposed of efficiently in these highly extraordinary conditions.”
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It is further submitted that the overcrowded prisons bring an invitation to mass infection and there is no medicines to counter the virus.
-India Legal Bureau