The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Union government to clarify how it was going to tackle immediate concerns of large vacancies in prisons and over-crowding across the country.
A bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant gave Additional Solicitor General A N S Nadkarni two weeks to reply to the reports by the Justice Amitava Roy committee.
The court noted the Roy committee gave two preliminary reports, which have been forwarded to the Ministry of Home Affairs.
"Over-crowding is connected to performance of courts that is something we have to tackle, and we would do it," the CJI said.
The court gave the law officer time to obtain instructions as it was hearing a matter relating to “inhuman conditions in 1,382 prisons” across India.
On September 25, 2018, the top court had constituted a three-member committee, headed by former apex court judge Amitava Roy, to look into jail reforms across India and make recommendations on several aspects, including overcrowding. It had noted as many as 67 per cent prisoners in the "overcrowded" jails across India were undertrials. As on December 31, 2017, the capacity of jails in the country was around 3.78 lakh, while the actual number of inmates lodged was 4.19 lakh. It had said prisoners also have human rights and cannot be kept like "animals".
(Published 05 February 2020, 17:43 IST)
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