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Hearing a suo moto case along with one PIL relating to pathetic conditions and overcrowding of prisons in the State, Madhya Pradesh High Court on Thursday directed for surprise inspection of all Central Jails and District Jails within next 6 weeks.

Bench of Chief Justice Mohammad Rafiq and Justice Vijay Kumar Shukla also directed assigned authorities to privately interview as many prisoners as they may consider necessary and submit their report highlighting their first-hand impression on the following aspects before the next date of hearing.

These aspects include sanitization, food, healthcare, recreational activities, educational activities, vocational activities, infrastructure and welfare.

Accordingly, the Member Secretary, District Legal Services Authority accompanied by Chief Judicial Magistrate of each district are to make the surprise inspections on any day within next six weeks.

In the State, there are total 50 prisons of which 11 are Central Jails and rest are District Jails, apart from various sub-jails.

Earlier in month of May, court had taken cognizance of the situation of Covid-19 in prisons affecting both under-trial and convicted prisoners as all the prisons/jails in the State were having more than double the prisoners against their capacity and were therefore needed to be immediately decongested.

During pendency of the case, pathetic condition of the prisons was also highlighted before the court accompanied by numerous suggestions for reforms.

Amicus Curiae, Mr. Sankalp Kochar had submitted these reforms on the basis of inputs received from various reports of the National Crime Report Bureau, recommendations of Mulla Committee Report, 1983, report of All India Committee on Jail Reforms 1980-83 and Model Prison Manual, 2003.

This fact was also placed before the court that from January 2020 until March 2021, the breakup of Madhya Pradesh Prison Population Statistics shows a steady increase in the prison population in Madhya Pradesh during the pandemic.

It was also mentioned that as against the total capacity of 28675 prisoners, there were 32263 under-trail prisoners and 17311 convict, totaling to 49763 prisoners, lodged in the different jails of the State.The overcrowding is thus to the extent of 174% of which surprisingly the share of under-trial prisoners is 64.8%.

Therefore, counsels of the PIL petitioner and intervenor argued before the court that there is an urgent need for augmentation/improvement of the health care facilities in the prisons of the State, which are wholly insufficient due to which many prisoners, who are suffering from different kind of chronic diseases, usually succumb to death.

However, even after extensively taking note of the suggestions given by Mr. Kochar and petitioner’s counsel, for now, court decided to not issue any specific directions upon the issue.

Instead, requiring State to give specific-considered and detailed response to each of the suggestions placed on record, court deemed it appropriate to comprehend magnitude of the problem by having prisons physically inspected.

Accordingly, Court directed for the surprise inspection.

Lastly, asking for order copy to be forwarded to Member Secretary, MP State Legal Services Authority and Director General of Prisons for compliance, Court also directed all Superintendents of Central Jails and District Jails to provide logistic support and full cooperation to the inspecting team.

The matter is listed to be next heard on December 7, 2021.

Case Title: In Reference (Suo Motu) v. The State of Madhya Pradesh & others along with Madhuri Krishnaswami Vs. The State of Madhya Pradesh & others