The Supreme Court has decided to take suo motu cognisance of the increasing number of women inmates getting pregnant in prisons across the country.
The development followed a petition filed in the Calcutta High Court, highlighting the increasing number of women prisoners becoming pregnant while in custody in correctional homes of West Bengal.
The Bench of Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah and Justice Sanjay Kumar directed Senior Advocate Gaurav Agrawal, who is the amicus curiae in the suo motu case on the overcrowding of prisons, to examine the issue of pregnancies in prisons and report back to the court.
The issue was highlighted in the High Court by an amicus curiae during the mentioning of a case related to prison reforms and correctional homes in the State of West Bengal.
The Divisional Bench of Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice Supratim Bhattacharya took a serious view of the submission and said that the matter would be placed before a Division Bench of the High Court hearing criminal cases. The petition suggested that the male employees of correctional homes should be prohibited from entering enclosures holding women prisoners.
A single-judge Bench of Justice Amanullah is currently hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) aimed at tackling the overcrowding crisis in Indian prisons.