The Supreme Court has sought details of jails having occupancy of over 150 per cent from the National legal Services Authority (NAlSA). The order comes two years after the Court passed a slew of directions to the States and union territories to make attempts to reduce overcrowding in jails and expeditious release of undertrial prisoners, who form the bulk of inmates across each jail.
In a PIl proceeding, the bench of Justices Madan B lokur, Kurian Joseph and Deepak Gupta was informed by amicus curiae Gaurav Agarwal that nothing has changed on the ground despite SC order. Going through the report, the bench asked NAlSA Director Surinder S Rathi to ascertain through the member secretaries of each State legal service authority on the situation of overcrowding in district and central jails. The Court further asked NAlSA to give the figure of vacant posts in each jail.
The bench asked NAlSA Director to furnish jail-wise population with an emphasis on prisons with over 150 per cent occupancy. On February 5, 2016, the SC order on overcrowding of prisons had stated that in Central jails, there are 184386 prisoners as compared to the capacity of 152312. In district jails, the situation was worse. With a capacity of 135439, the total prisoners housed in these jails were 179695.
The highest concentration of prisoners was in UT of Dadra and Nagar Haveli (331 per cent), followed by Chhattisgarh (259%) and then Delhi (221.6%). This prompted the Court to seek information about prison population from all jails.
The bench said, "For the time being, we request Surinder S Rathi, Director, NAlSA to look into the issue of overcrowding as highlighted by the amicus curiae and furnish figures of the population in the jails where occupancy is more than 150 per cent as on December 31, 2017." The Court also asked Agarwal to look into the issue of rehabilitation and welfare of women prisoners and their children, including the aspect of their education before the next date of hearing on March 27.
The apex court will also deal with the responses of states and UTs to the Under Trial Review Committees (UTRCs) constituted by its February 2016 order. Such committees, one in each district, were to recommend the release of undertrial prisoners and convicts who have undergone the sentence or have failed to comply with surety or bail conditions. The UTRCs comprised District Judge, the Superintendent of Police and the District Magistrate.