The Orissa High Court has ordered for the constitution of a high-level committee headed by the State’s Home Secretary within ten days for implementation of its order improving the condition of jails and reduction of overcrowding.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Dr. S. Muralidhar and Judge A.K. Mohapatra had pronounced a comprehensive judgment on Thursday asking the government agencies to implement the measures suggested by the court with regard to various issues concerning the jails across the State.

The division bench had taken cognizance of a case filed by a convict lodged in District Jail, Balasore. The petition moved by the convict through his counsel had drawn the attention of the court on the plight of inmates in overcrowded jails in the State. The High Court had later appointed Gautam Misra as Amicus Curiae (AC) to take stock of the prevailing condition in the jails and assist the court.

“It is accordingly directed that the Government of Odisha shall, within ten days from today (23 December), set up a Committee for implementation of the Court’s directions. The Committee headed by Home Secretary will comprise of the Principal Secretary, Law and Justice, the Director General of Police, the DG Prisons, representatives of the Health Department and the Women and Child Development Department. The Member Secretary, Odisha State Legal Service Authority (OSLASA) shall also be the convener of the Committee while the Amicus Curiae (AC) shall be an invitee to the meetings. The Committee will hold its first meeting not later than 10 January, 2022”, the HC ordered.

The contents of the HC judgment noted that out of the 87 prisons in Odisha, 48 are overcrowded. As many as 14 had an occupancy up to 120%; 18 had between 121 and 150%, 10 had between 150 and 200%, 4 had between 200 and 299% and 2 prisons had more than 300%.

While the All-India average of under-trial prisoners lodged in jails is 69%, the percentage of UTPs in Odisha Jails is 78%. About 95% of the prisoners were semi-literate or illiterate.

“Although the Court has in this order taken up seven jails as a sampling, the situation in most of the other jails is not very different. The Court has issued the directions with the expectation that with all the measures envisaged being made operational; the prison population in Odisha is progressively reduced to manageable levels.

The Court is conscious that many of the measures will have to be implemented over a considerable period of time. As the experts repeatedly pointed out during the hearings, the problem of overcrowding in jails cannot be tackled on a piecemeal or ad hoc basis. It requires a whole slew of measures to be put in place to achieve that goal”, the HC’s division bench observed.