Chhattisgarh High Court Initiates Suo Moto PIL To Ascertain Feasibility Of Operating 'Open Jails'

The Chhattisgarh High Court has recently registered a suo moto PIL to explore the possibilities with regard to implementation of 'open jails' and to ascertain whether the same would be feasible in the State.

The division bench of Chief Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Ravindra Kumar Agrawal directed the Chief Secretary, Government of Chhattisgarh to file an affidavit in this regard.

“An open jail provides a congenial atmosphere which would help the offender to socialize even before he is actually released from the jail. There are quite good number of prisoners who are skilled professionals whose services may be utilized and in turn they may also earn something for their future,” the bench observed.

Earlier, the Court took cognisance of several letters written by relatives of a murder convict stating that because of confinement of the sole bread earner of their family, they are living a life in misery.

Pursuant to the aforesaid letters, data had been collected from the Central Jails and District Jails situated in the State of Chhattisgarh with regard to:

(i) children living with female prisoners in jail

(ii) details of convicts having conviction of more than 20 years of imprisonment and appeal has been dismissed from the Supreme Court of India

(iii) the capacity of jail and total number of prisoners actually kept in jail

(iv) number of prisoners who are skilled professionals like carpenter, plumber, painter, gardener, farmer etc.

(v) number of prisoners who are senior citizens

(vi) number of prisoners who tried to escape the jail.

Upon perusal of the data, the Court noted that 82 children living with female prisoners in jail; 340 convicts who have been convicted for more than 20 years of imprisonment and their appeals have been dismissed by the Supreme Court; the total capacity of Jails is 15,485 against which 19,476 prisoners are confined and a total number of 1,843 prisoners are skilled professionals; 504 are senior citizens and 4 prisoners had tried to escape the jail.

The Court observed:

“When an criminal/offender is confined in jail, it is not only the person who had committed the crime suffers, but at times, when the said offender is also the sole bread earner of the family, the entire family suffers. After undergoing long period of incarceration, when the prisoner is released at the fag end of his life, he is unable to sustain himself and his family in any manner and as such, it is the duty of the State to explore all the possibilities which may help an inmate to lead a normal life of a law abiding citizen when he is released.”

It was further remarked by the Court that the paradigm of reformative punishment does not support the traditional inhuman jails with bars but is more liberal and supports the concept of open prisons, which is a trust-based prison with minimum security.

“The concept of open jail is not new in India and the State of Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh have the maximum number of active open prisons,” the Court added.

Prafull N bharat, the Advocate General assisted by Y. S. Thakur, the Additional Advocate General submitted that they would go through the records and the data collected and prayed for grant of four weeks time to seek appropriate instructions.

The matter is listed again on April 15.

Case No.: WP(PIL) No. 18 of 2024

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