New Delhi, Nov 12: First-time offenders at Tihar, Rohini jails allowed to make one phone call a week, others once a fortnight; HC informed
Prisoners in Delhi jails now have a compelling reason to be on their best behaviour — they will be allowed to call home at least once a fortnight, if not in every week, depending on their past conduct.
Acting on a public interest litigation (PIL) on the undue stress caused to prison inmates due to the lack of communication with their families, the Delhi Prison Administration on Wednesday told the High Court that first-time offenders in prison will be allowed to make a one phone call home every week, and others once a fortnight.
Senior police counsel Meera Bhatia, appearing for the Delhi Prison Administration, told a Bench led by Chief Justice A P Shah on Wednesday that prison authorities are already in the process of shortlisting prisoners who can access the facility on the basis of their past conduct.
The issue of stress due to disconnect between prisoners and their families first came to the notice of the court when former IPS officer Ravi Kant Sharma, serving life imprisonment for the murder of journalist Shivani Bhatnagar, wrote to the Chief Justice asking for his help in providing telephone facilities to prisoners.
“Permission to speak with family members on telephone and installation of booths in jail can help reduce unnecessary stress,” Sharma stated in his letter. The letter was later converted into a public interest litigation by the High Court .
“First-time offenders will be allowed telephone facilities in their wards itself, where they can make one call a week. Other prisoners can be allowed this facility once in a fortnight,” Bhatia said in court.
On a test basis, the facility will be launched at both Tihar and Rohini prisons, a draft plan submitted by the prison authorities stated.
“This facility will be contingent on the good conduct of a prisoner. This can be withdrawn temporarily or permanently if any jail offence is committed by a prisoner or the facility is misused,” the plan stated.
Prison authorities have, however, not detailed what would constitute “misuse” of the facility. “This is just a draft plan. We will be working on it,” Bhatia added.
As a security measure, the telephone “system” will record “100 per cent” of the conversation and store it with the date, time of day and name of the prisoner for purposes of “later retrieval if required”.
“As of now, the prison administration is taking up the matter with telephone companies concerned so that the facility is introduced in Delhi jail after we get the approval of the government,” Bhatia said.
HC seeks info on undertrialsThe High Court has, meanwhile, directed Tihar Jail authorities to prepare a full statistical report on the number of undertrials within the next two weeks.
Besides this, the court also wanted information on how long the undertrials have been in prison and the status of their trials and appeals in court.
The court ordered jail officials to give full details of inmates awaiting criminal trial or involved in appeal proceedings. Chief Justice Shah specifically wanted details of prisoners charged under non-bailable drug offences and also those under the Foreigners’ Act. Information has also been sought on all prisoners charged with an offence punishable with a jail term of seven years or above.
“Some of them have courts taking up their appeals only after their jail sentence is over. We judges can sit during the weekends to finish their cases,” the Chief Justice said.
The Bench further appointed Delhi Legal Services Authority Member-Secretary and Additional District and Sessions Judge Asha Menon and the Delhi High Court Registrar General to conduct an independent inquiry and file a report in the issue.
–Agencies