MADURAI
The Madras High Court Bench here on Tuesday directed the Home Secretary to pass appropriate orders by August 1 on proposals sent by Additional Director General of Police (Prisons) in 2014 and 2016 for appointment of skilled individuals as non-official members in the Board of Visitors, headed by Collectors in every district and entrusted with the responsibility of keeping a check on living conditions in prisons.
Justices K.K. Sasidharan and G.R. Swaminathan also ordered that the Home Secretary should appear in court on August 3 if he failed to comply with the direction. They were irked by a Special Government Pleader’s submission that the proposals were still under consideration. The judges were also unhappy with the government not having filed a status report despite a specific direction issued by the court in January last.
The interim orders were passed on a public interest litigation petition filed by People’s Watch, a non-governmental organisation represented by its executive director Henri Tiphagne. The petitioner’s counsel, R. Karunanithi, claimed that non-official members were yet to be appointed to the Board of Visitors in most of the prisons, including the central prison at Puzhal in Chennai and those in Coimbatore, Cuddalore, Vellore and Palayamkottai.
Highlighting the need to constitute the Board of Visitors properly in order to change the pathetic living conditions prevailing in many prisons, the petitioner, in his affidavit, had said: “Prisons have traditionally been and still remain closed institutions. The physical structure of prisons and the archaic rules of management of these punitive institutions endow them with a cover of obscurity in which human rights can be unofficially violated and officially denied.
“Over the years, prisons have become places where cruel conditions prevail. In particular, the conditions in prisons for women have not improved despite directions issued by the High Court… Unfortunately, the State’s supervision over the day-to-day happenings within such institutions has become a mere formality and the absence of surveillance by society is conspicuous.”
Stating that Rule 338 of the Tamil Nadu Prison Rules, 1983 and the provisions of the Prison Manual provide for appointing Members of Legislative Assembly, social workers, and those interested in correctional works such as psychiatrists and psychologists as non-official members of Board of Visitors, he claimed that their regular visit to prisons could improve the living conditions to a great extent.
