SABHAPATI PRASAD KUSHWAHA Vs. STATE OF JHARKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Today, once again we have felt the necessity of adverting to order no. 2 dated 10.05.2013 passed by the Court when the instant matter was treated as Public Interest Litigation by the Court on its own Motion after the Coordinate Bench dealing with Criminal Appeal (DB) No. 1088 of 2012 had received the report of the committees which were constituted to visit jails to verify the various aspects of the matter with a view to grant legal aid so as to achieve the goal of access to justice to the prisoners languishing in different jails of the State of Jharkhand. Looking at the report of the five committees, the Court in its order dated 10.05.2013 noticed issues on as many as 26 points which were in larger public interest, wherein the fact of deficiency of staff in the jails of the State were also taken note of. At this juncture, it would be apt to refer to point nos. 7, 8, 12, 13, 17, 23, 25 and 28 which read :

(2.) The said order reflects that at that time the total sanctioned posts were 2667, out of which 2130 posts were lying vacant therefore, it was taken up seriously. More than three years have gone by and the latest position as on date as informed by Mr. Jai Prakash, the learned Additional AdvocateGeneral assisting the Court on behalf of the State is that the total sanctioned post for 24 jails of State of Jharkhand are 2329 and the working strength is 399 thus, there is deficiency of 1930. What disturbs us most is that there are only 8 posts for Female Nurses (efgyk ulZ) and till date not even one post is filled. Similarly, there are 35 posts of Male Nurses (iq:"k ulZ) and not even one post is filled. There are 28 sanctioned posts for Computer Operators and all are unfilled. There are 30 posts of Video Conference Operators and not even one post is filled.

(3.) There are about 900 female inmates in 24 jails of the State, out of which 784 are under trial prisoners and the others are convicts. We are surprised that how 8 Female Nurses can cater to the need of 900 female inmates. On specific query put to Mr. Jai Prakash about the number of female inmates who are pregnant or otherwise ailing or suffering from any gynecological problem(s), he states that such information has to be gathered. How many male jail inmates (under trial/convicts) need medical care, the reply tendered by Mr. Jai Prakash is in the same manner.