The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed states and Union Territories to form district level committees to assess and report on available infrastructure in jails and give a decision on the number of additional jails required in terms of the Model Prison Manual, 2016. The court was hearing a PIL initiated to address the issue of overcrowding of prisons in the country.
A bench of Justice Hima Kohli and Justice A Amanullah directed the state and UT governments to notify the constitution of the Committees within a week from the date of receipt of the court’s order. It added that the committees will consist of the Principal/District judge (Chairperson of the District Legal Services Authority), Member Secretary (DLSA), District Magistrate (in-charge of the particular District), Superintendent of Police and Superintendents of Jails.
The top court further directed the committees to initiate steps to examine the requirement of expanding the existing jails and acquiring land to establish new jails within the Districts depending on current capacity, occupancy and future demands of the Districts.
Furthermore, the court said that the committees will also take into account the status of the ongoing projects and proposals that are pending within the departments to ascertain that milestones are set for completing the ongoing projects. It continued that whenever a project has to take off for want of land, steps should be taken to identify the land for the purpose of acquisition and thereby a report should be placed before the Chief Secretary for obtaining necessary approvals and fast-tracking the process.
The apex court also stipulated that the Committees shall keep in mind the requirement of AI and the institution of video-conferencing towards mulakat. The matter is now scheduled for hearing on April 9, 2024.
Earlier, the Supreme Court asked the states and Union Territories to furnish details of their respective territories on the number of jails presently setup, sanctioned capacity and the actual capacity of the jails, current requirement to set up more jails and the steps initiated and stage at which such plans were for establishing more jails.