LS corrects mistake in Repatriation of Prisoners Act

Noting that the scope of the Repatriation of Prisoners (Amendment) Bill, 2010 is "very limited," Home Minister P Chidambaram said "we are correcting the mistake now" as "we are a democracy."

While introducing the bill last year, Chidambaram had said the expression "martial law" occurred in the Act due to oversight at the time of passing of the Bill in 2003, which needs to be corrected. He said the Repatriation of Prisoners Act, 2003 was enacted to provide for the transfer of certain prisoners from India to a country or place outside India and reception in India of certain prisoners from a country or place outside India.

The Minister said the Act is applied to the persons convicted by the trial court of the country. "Each country has its own law, the prisoner who is foreign national, he can be repatriated. There is an elaborate procedure," Chidambaram said.

He said India has signed pact on transfer of prisoners with 11 countries like Saudi Arabia, UK, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, and it is currently working to sign the pact with 5 more countries.

The bill was introduced in Lok Sabha August 16, 2010, and sent to the parliamentary standing committee on Home Affairs on September 15. Participating in the debate on the bill, Arjun Ram Meghwal (BJP) drew attention of the House towards the conditions of Indian in prisons in other countries.

Supporting the bill, Meghwal pointed out that government should have record of Indians imprisoned abroad. Madan Lal Sharma (Cong) also rose in favour of the bill and said victims of partition in 1947 got settled well in various parts of the country but those who came to Jammu and Kashmir are still fighting for their fundamental rights.

They cannot contest legislative assembly or local bodies elections. They cannot buy property in the state, but contest for Parliament, he added. Shilendra Kumar (SP) also favoured the amendment in the legislation and said there was need for complete overhauling of the Jail Manual which has been outdated long back.

The others who participated in the debate include Sushil Kumar Singh (JD-U), Raghuvansh Prasad Singh (RJD), B Mehtab (BJD), P Kumar (AIADMK), Chaudhary Lal Singh (Cong), Mahendra Singh Chauhan (BJP) and E T Mohammed Basheer (MLKSC).