The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought Centre’s reply regarding overcrowding of jails and vacancies in prisons.
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde and comprising Justices BR Gavai and Surya Kant gave Additional Solicitor General AS Nadkarni two weeks time to inform the court on what steps it is going to take to deal with issues raised in Justice Amitava Roy committee report.
CJI SA Bobde acknowledged that overcrowding in the jails is connected to the performance of the courts and will have to be tackled.
The court was hearing a writ petition filed before the Supreme Court of India to address the inhuman conditions in 1,382 prisons across India and to issue directions, if necessary for prison reforms.
The court had earlier requested Justice Amitava Roy Committee to look into all the issues raised in the application in greater depth in addition to its terms of reference.
On September 25, 2018, the top court had constituted a three-member committee, headed by former apex court judge Amitava Roy, to look into jail reforms across India and make recommendations on several aspects, including overcrowding.
R.C. Lahoti J, former Chief Justice of India, wrote a letter dated June 13, 2013 to the Chief Justice of India relating to the disturbing conditions of 1382 prisons in India relying on a story which had appeared in Dainik Bhaskar on March 24, 2013.
Justice Lahoti had pointed out in his letter the inadequacy of reformative schemes for offenders and other prominent issues which were covered by the newspaper in its story viz., overcrowding of prisons, unnatural death of prisoners, the inadequacy of prison staff and present staff not being adequately or properly trained.