The Madras High Court has directed officials of the Tamil Nadu State Legal Services Authority (TNLSA) to conduct surprise inspections of women prisons across the State to check if the recommendations made by the Advocate Commissioner over this matter have been complied with.
When the matter came up for hearing before the First Bench comprising Chief Justice S.K. Kaul and Justice T.S. Sivagnanam, the Inspector General of Prisons filed an affidavit detailing the facilities made available to women prisoners across the State in compliance with the report filed by Advocate Commissioner Sudha Ramalingam.
After the report stated that many of the recommendations have been complied with partly, the Bench sought to know when all the recommendations will be completely implemented.
On the submission made by the Government Pleader, the Bench further granted three months to complete the remaining work and directed officials to conduct inspections thereafter. The Bench further directed that photographs be taken to show compliance of the court order, which shall eventually be displayed in the police website in addition to the jail manual.
The Bench also directed authorities to declare Stanley Government Hospital in Chennai as tertiary hospital instead of Government Royapettah Hospital before November this year considering its proximity to the Central prison at Puzhal.
On perusing a report filed by the Superintendent of Police of Villupuram district that stated most of the prisons were functioning from rented buildings, the Bench directed the government to look into the issue.
The case was later posted for hearing on November 19.
A petition filed in 2006 had sought a direction to authorities to implement the recommendations of the Board of Visitors, which was constituted based on a report of the All India Committee on Prison Reforms.
Many of the recommendations of Advocate Commissioner complied with partly
