IN RE Vs. INHUMAN CONDITIONS IN 1382 PRISONS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This application for directions and declarations has been filed in which it is prayed, inter alia, that prisoners sentenced to death by any court have a right to be treated at par with other convicted prisoners and should be provided all similar facilities as are provided to other prisoners. It is also prayed that solitary confinement of prisoners on death row or their separate and cellular confinement be struck down as unconstitutional.

(2.) We do not think it necessary to go into all the issues raised in the application but find it necessary to place in perspective certain aspects of the rights of prisoners.

(3.) One of the important questions before us is: When could it be said that a convict is under the sentence of death? Could it be said that when the Trial Court convicts a prisoner and sentences him to death, then that prisoner is a death row prisoner? Or, could it be said that when the death sentence is beyond judicial scrutiny, that is after the sentence is upheld by this Court, the mercy petition is rejected and a challenge to the rejection is dismissed, then the prisoner is a death row prisoner?