Supreme Court Expresses Concerned Over Overcrowded Jails And Lack Of Facilities, Directs States To Submit Action Plans

Amicus curiae lawyer Gaurav Aggarwal from the bench of Justice Hima Kohli of Supreme Court said that there are more prisoners in the jails of 16 states than their capacity. The condition of women prisoners is depressing as they have no doctor, gynecologist, separate walls in washrooms etc.

Talking about the states, the jails of UP state are overcrowded and to accommodate the prisoners, the capacity has been increased on paper without any development in infrastructure.

The Supreme Court said that this situation is not fair for the court, amicus curae and the system. Did the UP government even read its own affidavit?

Amicus said that the details of the meetings of all 74 jails of UP should be given to the court and it should be told what is the proposal to increase the capacity in jails.

The amicus has filed a brief note for today’s hearing and collected data with respect to the data received from Bihar, UP, Chandigarh and detailed reports received from Rajasthan, Haryana and some other states and the amicus is yet to study the reports.

The Chief Secretary of the States should study the respective status reports and highlight the action to be taken within the given timeline to resolve the issues.

With respect to Andaman and Nicobar Islands and other union territories, the population is not that large. The Chief Secretary will file an affidavit regarding the timeline within which the steps will be implemented. We note that the District Magistrate and Superintendent of Police have not participated in the deliberations despite the court order and they should participate for the overall report by the State Government.

The Chief Secretaries of UP, Bihar, Chhattisgarh should give an affidavit within two weeks stating the timeline for implementing the recommendations. State Governments/UTs will also file additional affidavits indicating the steps taken within which action will be taken.

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