Orissa HC directs Govt to pay Rs 20 lakh compensation for undertrial’s death

The Orissa High Court has directed the State Government to pay Rs 20 lakh compensation to a widow whose husband, lodged in a jail, died due to a lack of proper treatment extended to him by the prison authorities.

Holding the State responsible for the latches and negligence by not providing proper adequate treatment facilities, Single Bench Justice Biraja Prasanna Satapathy directed the State’s Home Secretary to release the compensation amount in favour of the petitioner within a period of 6 weeks from the date of receipt of this order.

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“Right to life” includes the right to live in any civilised society implies the right to food, water, a decent environment, education, medical care, and shelter, Justice Satapathy, quoting the Supreme Court observation, stated in an order pronounced yesterday.

Sabita Nishank’s late husband, Krutibas Khatei, while working as Panchayat Executive Officer in Opega and Pamsora Gram Panchayat in Puri district, was arrested and remanded to judicial custody in a criminal case on 29 September 2016 and was lodged in Nimapara sub-jail as an under-trial prisoner. The petitioner’s husband was never provided with proper treatment for his suffering from high blood sugar, and accordingly, his health condition deteriorated. The petitioner’s late husband, though, was referred to District Headquarter Hospital, Puri, and subsequently to S C B Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack, for better treatment on 25 January 2017, but he died while under treatment in S C B Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack, a day later, petitioner’s counsel Hemant Kumar Rout submitted before the Court.

Since Petitioner’s husband remained in custody, and while in custody, his health condition deteriorated, and subsequently he died, it is the view of this Court that the claim made by the petitioner to get compensation on the ground of negligence on the part of the jail authorities is well proved.

This Court, taking into account the negligence on the part of the jail authorities in not providing proper and better treatment to the UTP while in custody, is of the view that the petitioner is eligible and entitled to get the benefit of compensation.