Karnataka High Court Directs Actor Darshan To Approach Trial Court With His Plea Seeking Home Food, Books In Prison

The Karnataka High Court on Friday directed Kannada actor Darshan Thoogdeep Srinivas to approach the Magistrate court, where the murder case in which he is allegedly involved is pending, with his plea seeking home cooked food, clothing, cutlery, bedding and books in prison.

A single judge bench of Justice S R Krishna Kumar granted liberty to the actor to file an application in this regard by tomorrow and asked the Magistrate court to decide the same within a week.

Darshan was arrested in the Renukaswamy murder case, on June 11, 2024 and remanded to judicial custody on June 22. His petition refers to section 30 of Karnataka Prisons Act and says it allows undertrial prisoners to maintain themselves or to purchase/receive proper food, clothing, bedding subject to examination and to such rules as may be approved by IGP (Prisons).

The court has kept the petition pending to consider the larger issue raised of whether an undertrial prisoner has an absolute right to such amenities.

Section 30 reads thus: A civil prisoner or an unconvicted criminal prisoner shall be permitted to maintain himself and to purchase or receive from private sources at proper hours food, clothing, bedding or writing materials, books, newspapers or other necessaries, subject to examination and to such regulations as may be approved by the Inspector-General.

It said, “Whether the Right to Food is an absolute right and the interpretation of word 'shall' in the provision will be required to be decided after a detailed hearing.”

Case Title: DARSHAN THOOGDEEP SRINIVAS AND State of Karnataka & Others.

Case No: WP 18222/2024