MOHD. MAQBOOL BHATT Vs. DELHI ADMINISTRATION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a petition from jail. In 1968, the petitioner was sentenced to death by a Special Judge of the State of Jammu & Kashmir. He was in custody in the Srinagar Jail. Subsequently on 23rd July, 1976, he was transferred to Central Jail Tihar, New Delhi. He was confined in a block of cells in Ward No. 18. On 25th July, 1977 he filed a clemency petition addressed to the President of India. The said petition for mercy is still pending.

(2.) ON 13th September, 1979, he filed a petition being Cr. Misc. (M) 516 of 1979 for certain reliefs e.g. removal of fetters and restrictions on reading material; as also bringing to an end his solitary confinement and/or his confinement in Ward No. 18. In the said matter, Mr. justice Charanjit Talwar by his judgment and order dated 2nd January, 1980 directed the removal of fetters forthwith. He also gave some directions with regard to providing him with reading material. He further directed that the petitioner should be taken out of his cell for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening and be allowed to meet other prisoners lodged in the same ward during that time. However, the petitioner's confinement in Ward No. 18 was upheld in view of his antecedents.

(3.) APART from two short intervals of an hour each in the morning and afternoon, the petitioner is kept constantly locked up in the inner cell. He is refused access to the jail library and the prisoners' welfare canteen and associating with other inmates. He complains that though he is suffering from piles for about two years, he is being refused medically recommended surgery and instead being fed on laxative pills (Dulcolase) and application on haemorrboidal ointment.