Very soon one will get summons and other legal papers printed by murder convicts, particularly women inmates from the loknayak Jayaprakash Narayan Central Jail in Hazaribagh.
The Jharkhand High Court has placed an order of Rs 64 lakh to print 30 types of forms for summons, warrant, deportation etc, besides preparing file board, cover file to the jail to be used by the courts across the State.
Earlier, the High Court incurred over Rs 2 crore over printing of stationeries from the private printing press. The project, a part of the scheme mooted by acting Chief Justice DN Patel and cleared by former CJ Prakash Tatia, was aimed to provide gainful employment to the convicted inmates and at the same time lessen the burden on the public exchequer. Justice Patel is the chairman of the Rules Committee of High Court.
He told The Pioneer that the scheme, which has already kickstarted, will not only give financial stability to those who are under custody, particularly women convicts but also their kin who are out of jail.
"Besides, it will also give a boost to the victim's compensation scheme as stipulated under Section 357 of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC)," he added. "We want to issue guidelines to the State Government that out of jail kin of the convicts should also get part of their remuneration," he said.
According to the rules, one-third of the amount earned by the prisoners is supposed to be deposited in the fund meant for the victims of the offence committed by the convicted persons and the rest is disbursed as remuneration. A skilled prisoner is earning Rs 46 a day, while a semi-skilled one is being paid Rs 28 a day. Unskilled jailbirds are receiving Rs 16 a day.
The acting Chief Justice pointed out that the high court had earlier sought a status report of the five central jails on 23 points in the State by constituting a team of lawyers. "Among other revelations, we found that there are 216 lady convicts who have children below six years of age staying with them in the jail. Besides, we found that a state of art printing press was functioning in Hazaribagh central jail," he pointed out.
Under the rules, children up to six years of age are allowed to stay with their mother in jail.
"We immediately summoned the Jail Superintendent and discussed the issue with him. We put two conditions. First, the work order would be given to the Central Jail only if the printing job was not outsourced to any agency. And the jail authorities must also involve women inmates in the production. The jail authorities readily accepted both the conditions," he pointed out.
"It is an experiment. I don't know its impact. But we think the State Government and other institutions should also place such orders to the press," the acting CJ said.