'At Least Fill Up Vacancies' : Bombay High Court Pulls Up State Govt Over Dearth Of Medical Staff In Prisons Amid COVID19

"We are not asking you to increase the sanctioned strength of medical officers. At least fill up the vacancies. You have a sanctioned strength. Why? Because there is a need," observed a division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice GS Kulkarni.

The bench noted there was no class-I medical officer in Mumbai Central Prison, Nagpur, Amravati and Taloja, adding that Amravati had only one class-III medical officer. The court observed that the note circulated by it on steps taken to curb coronavirus from spreading in the prisons was silent on the aspect of the large number of vacancies.

As per an affidavit filed by the State, out of 175 sanctioned posts of medical officers, 112 were filled, while 63 were vacant. Even within this, the prisons had only 32 doctors, including only two doctors who were MBBS. The vacant posts include two psychologists, two psychiatrists, one Class-I medical officer, 11 Class-II & III medical officers, 13 compounders, 30 nursing orderlies and four lab technicians.

The court asked Public Prosecutor Deepak Thakare about the eligibility criteria, who told the court that it was MBBS for some and Bachelor of Ayurveda Sciences (BAMS) for others. The bench noted that it would make observations on the entire issue in its written order.

The court also enquired about the process followed for vaccinating inmates who did not have Aadhaar cards. The State's note mentioned that 10,161 inmates out of over 30,000 across all prisons had Aadhaar cards. Senior Advocate Mihir Desai, appearing for the NGO People's Union of Civil Liberties, submitted that Union Government's standard operating procedure of May 6 now allowed vaccination of inmates and other categories of people without Aadhaar cards, but based on other identity related documents, including prisoner ID numbers. The SOP makes the district task forces responsible for registering those groups of people on the CoWIN portal who do not have any photo ID cards or Aadhaar cards and ensure that they were vaccinated.

Professor Vijay Raghavan of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences informed the court that in many states, like Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, vaccination was carried out in a camp mode, inside the prisons. "This will save a lot of time. The relatives and families of prison staff can also be vaccinated here on priority," he added.

The bench asked the State to follow the SOP issued by the Union Government.

The court was also informed in the State government's note that jail staff was considered frontline workers, and out of 3,818 prison staff across prions/correctional homes, 3,252 were vaccinated. It also said that, so far, the state government was able to set up 40 temporary prisons across Maharashtra to decongest jails and was attempting to add more such jails.