Bombay High Court raises concern over terminally ill prisoners languishing in jails

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has raised concern over terminally ill prisoners languishing in jails and asked the Maharashtra government to consider proper implementation of an advisory on grant of medical bail or to place them in house arrest.

A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Prithviraj Chavan on Monday said they visited the Yerwada central prison in Pune on Sunday and met with prisoners, particularly women inmates, and inspected the condition there.

The bench referred to an advisory issued by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs in August 2010 on the policy for the treatment of terminally ill prisoners/inmates.

As per the advisory, any prisoner who is identified as suffering from any terminal illness shall be either granted bail on medical grounds, parole, furlough, or placed in house arrest or in the custody of family members.

The advisory also says that in some cases, special medical care could be given to such persons in the prison itself.

The court directed the Maharashtra government to file a detailed affidavit on the issue and on implementation of the advisory.

The HC was hearing a petition filed by one Arun Bhelke, who along with his wife Kanchan Nanaware was an undertrial and lodged in the Yerwada jail after they were arrested in a 2014 case under provisions of the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

As per the plea, Nanaware was diagnosed with a terminal illness in 2020 but failed to get medical bail.

When she approached the high court for bail on medical grounds, she was referred to a medical board, which recommended 'heart and lung' transplant.

However, by the time any order could be passed, she died in January 2021, after spending nearly seven years in prison.

Her husband subsequently petitioned the HC, seeking directions to the state to scrupulously implement the advisory of 2010 and also provisions of the Maharashtra Prisons (Review of Sentences) Rules, so that in future no other prisoner suffers despite being terminally ill.

Senior advocate Gayatri Singh, appearing for Bhelke, told the court that the rules empower the superintendent of prisons to hand over a terminally ill prisoner to his/her relatives on certain conditions to allow such persons to spend their last days among their family members.

The bench said it would hear the plea further in January 2025.