Bombay High Court: Hardened Criminals also deserve Humane treatment

PRISON Law Insider

Mitali Palnitkar

Published On: February 01, 2022 at 12:35 IST

The Aurangabad Bench of the Bombay High Court has directed the District Prison Officials to inform the Court about the Statutory procedure followed for sending a prisoner to ‘Anda cell’ (isolated cell) and the records maintained with respect to it.

The Bench comprises of Justices V.K Jadhav and S.C More. It stated that a hardened criminal also deserves humane treatment in the prison. The Petition was filed by Rubeena Shaikh and was represented in the Court by Advocate Rupesh Jaiswal.

Rubeena is the wife of the Convict, Imran Shaikh, who has been kept in the ‘Anda cell’ for two years and four months.

The Bench had directed a medical and judicial enquiry into the allegations of the Petitioner. It had stated,

“He may be hardened criminal, may even be a terror in society, but what is expected is humane treatment and not inhumane treatment.”

The Bench after perusing the reports stated,

“If certain procedure is followed, then we would like to know, where the procedure is prescribed. This has to be done with the prescribed procedure, otherwise this cannot be done arbitrarily.”

On January 28, 2022, the prisoner, Shaikh was transferred to a regular cell after the High Court Order. On January 31, 2022; the Bench went through the reports submitted by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Aurangabad; the Superintendent of Aurangabad Prison; and the Dean of Government Medical College and Hospital, Aurangabad.

The Court noted from the reports that Shaikh’s vitals were stable and he did not require any Psychiatric medication. The Additional Public Prosecutor DS Kape submitted that there was misinterpretation as the prisoner was kept in an isolated cell with more security and not in solitary confinement.

The Court directed him to provide the details of prisoners who had been placed in the ‘Anda cell’ before Shaikh and the time period for which they had been imprisoned.

The matter will be taken up again after four weeks.

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