India News | Delhi HC Directs Holding of Workshops for Senior Jail Officers on Their Duties, Prisoners' Rights
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. The Delhi High Court directed the legal services authority on Thursday to organise online workshops for senior jail officers to apprise them of their duties and obligations in law relating to prisoners and their rights.
New Delhi, Aug 6 (PTI) The Delhi High Court directed the legal services authority on Thursday to organise online workshops for senior jail officers to apprise them of their duties and obligations in law relating to prisoners and their rights.
A bench of justices Hima Kohli and Subramonium Prasad said it was of the opinion that the officers posted in jails, particularly those of the rank of superintendents, deputy superintendents and assistant superintendents, must be apprised of their duties and obligations in law so that an incident of unlawful detention is not repeated in the future.
The court was hearing a matter related to the unlawful detention of a person in prison for six days.
The prison authorities, in a status report, submitted that at least 1.5 lakh prisoners were released in the last three years and the court's direction to compile the data in respect of all of them would be a stupendous exercise and need a lot of time.
It said to prevent any such mistake as has happened in the matter, the Prison (Headquarters) has constituted a committee to randomly inspect the jail records concerning detention of prisoners in jails and their release.
A circular was issued informing all concerned that no person must be detained without any valid and justified reason and that the erring official will be held responsible for such a lapse, it said.
DG (Prisons) Sandeep Goel, who was present at the hearing, which took place through video-conferencing, told the court that it has been decided that course correction is warranted within the department.
He also informed that 14 law officers will be appointed on a contractual basis very soon and they will be available to each of the jails for advice and guidance, wherever required.
The court directed the member (secretary), Delhi State Legal Services Authority (DSLSA), to organise online workshops for the jail superintendents, deputy superintendents, assistant superintendents and all the 14 law officers to be appointed by the Prison (Headquarters), and that they shall attend it on each date fixed in consultation with the DG (Prisons).
"In the said workshops, the relevant provisions of law and the case law shall be discussed with the attendees and they shall be apprised of the various nuances of law relating to prisoners and their rights and the duty of the jail authorities qua them. It is further directed that the Member (Secretary), DSLSA shall organise similar workshops in conjunction with DG (Prisons) on a regular interval and at least once a year," the bench said.
It asked the DSLSA official to file a compliance affidavit after conducting the online workshops in respect of the jail officers and listed the matter for further hearing on September 14.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)