Denial of open correctional institutions to women prisoners against dignity: Supreme Court

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday said that denial of access to open correctional institutions (OCIs) deprived women prisoners of equal opportunity for rehabilitation and cannot be sustained in a constitutional order committed to equality, dignity and the transformative promise of justice.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta said, the exclusion of women, or failure to transfer them despite being eligible for shifting from closed prisons to OCIs, amounts to blatant gender discrimination, violative of Articles 14 and 15(1) of the Constitution, and also infringes upon their right to live with dignity as guaranteed under Article 21.

In its judgment in a writ petition filed by Suhas Chakma, the court emphasised, prisons as institutions of correction, where dignity, self-respect and social reintegration are not aspirational ideals but constitutional necessities.

"The emphasis on meaningful work, vocational training, payment of wages, humane living conditions, and maintenance of family ties reflects a coherent judicial philosophy that punishment must be tempered by compassion and directed towards reform. Open and semi-open correctional institutions, premised on trust and self discipline, naturally align with this vision,'' the bench said.

Highlighting that the constitutional vision of rehabilitation and reintegration cannot be reduced to policy declarations or paper compliances, the court issued a slew of directions on under-utilisation of existing OCI facilities and their absence in several states and Union Territories, exclusion and under-representation of women prisoners, strict eligibility criteria and inadequate rehabilitative avenues within OCIs, lack of uniformity and the need for common minimum standards for their governance and management across States and Union Territories, expansion of open correctional infrastructure and compliance and monitoring.

The court directed all States and Union Territories to develop a protocol for restructuring existing OCIs and/or open barracks so as to allocate adequate capacity for women prisoners.

It orders that the protocol would be submitted before the Monitoring Committee constituted in each State and Union Territory within three months.

"Security concerns shall generally not be made a ground to deny women prisoners access to OCI facilities and open barracks. States/Union Territories are directed to evolve gender sensitive and security-conscious mechanisms to facilitate such access, consistent with Articles 14, 15 and 21 of the Constitution,'' the bench said.

The court also directed all the States to adopt and adapt best practices from States such as Maharashtra, Kerala, and Rajasthan, where OCIs have demonstrated effective rehabilitative outcomes, including models of community-based employment, family integration and diversified vocational training.

"Prisoners do not cease to be bearers of constitutional rights upon incarceration, and the State’s obligation to treat them with humanity, fairness and compassion stands heightened where liberty is lawfully curtailed. OCIs embody this constitutional promise by recognising that trust, responsibility and graded liberty are essential for meaningful reform,'' the bench said.

It also directed the constitution of a high-powered committee for reform and governance of open correctional institutions, by nominated former SC judge Justice S Ravindra Bhat as its executive chairman.

The bench asked the High Courts to assume an active role in overseeing and ensuring effective implementation of the directions, as the orders on May 8, 2018 in 'In Re: Inhuman Conditions in 1382 Prisons' have not, thus far, yielded any meaningful or positive results.

The court stressed that enduring strength of a constitutional democracy lies not in the severity of its punishments, but in its commitment to restore dignity, hope and opportunity even to those who have transgressed the law.