SANTOSH UPADHYAY Vs. STATE OF UTTARAKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In compliance of the order dtd. 17/11/2021, both Mr. Ranjeet Singh Sinha, the learned Secretary (Home), and Mr. Pushpak Jyoti, the learned Inspector General of Prisons, Uttarakhand, have joined this Court through video conference. Moreover, in compliance of the said order, Mr. C.S. Rawat, the learned Chief Standing Counsel for the State of Uttarakhand, has submitted an affidavit of Mr. Pushpak Jyoti, the learned Inspector General of Prisons, dtd. 6/12/2021. The same shall be taken on record.

(2.) By order dtd. 17/11/2021, this Court had directed the learned Inspector General of Prisons to visit the thirteen jails of the State, and to give his report along with photographs of each jail, as well as to provide this Court with his vision for improving and reforming the conditions of the jails in the State. Consequently, Mr. Jyoti, the learned IGP, has complied with the said order by submitting his affidavit.

(3.) A bare perusal of the affidavit, and especially of the photographs attached thereto, reveals a horrifying situation and conditions of the jails in the State. According to the said affidavit, District Jail, Haridwar, has a capacity of housing 870 prisoners. But, presently, 1400 prisoners are incarcerated in the said jail. Out of the said 1400 prisoners, 1335 are male prisoners living in twenty-three barracks. There are sixty-five female prisoners living in a single barrack. It is beyond anyone's imagination as to how sixty-five female prisoners are living in a single barrack. Moreover, it is difficult to believe how fifty-eight male prisoners live and survive in each barrack. Surprisingly, despite the fact that there are sixty-five female prisoners, according to the affidavit, there is not a single gynecologist, who is attached with the prison. According to Mr. Pushpak Jyoti, as and when need arises, a gynecologist is asked to come and attend to the needs of the female prisoners. This is, indeed, surprising considering the fact that women would continue to have gynecological problems periodically, and yet the Government has not even bothered to attach a single gynecologist, or an obstetrician, in the medical faculty provided in the jail.