The State government on Wednesday informed the Bombay High Court that jails across Maharashtra have the facility of video conferencing (VC) and almost 40,000 inmates have appeared for trials through it this year.
Assistant public prosecutor (APP) Mankhuwar Deshmukh told a division bench of Justices Naresh Patil and P. D. Naik that in courts all over the State, 61,946 inmates appeared for trials through VC in 2015, while 39,343 inmates appeared till July in 2016. She also said that laptops have been provided to the judges to use the service.
In its reply, the court said that video conferencing should not be a substitute to the physical presence of the accused and steps need to be taken to produce them in the court. “The facility is provided only for convenience and does not mean that statutory provision of bringing the accused to court can be ruled out”, the court said.
Ms. Deshmukh also informed the bench about steps taken by the State to tackle overcrowding in jails, and assigning officers to escort prisoners before the court. She told the bench that a software is being installed in jails which will have information of all the inmates. She added that the software will have data about the date of conviction and the sentence of the convict, in order to avoid over-stay of convicts in prison.
She also said that the State has made efforts to create more barracks in jails and also acquire land to construct new jails. The court questioned the APP on how many under-trials have not been produced in court and how many witnesses have not been served their summons.
Commenting on the administration of criminal system, the court expressed concern towards the existing forensic infrastructure, stating that there are no forensic laboratory vans, and a shortage of handwriting experts in the State. It suggested that district pathology labs and private pathology labs could also be used to conduct simple procedures.
