Copies of Delhi's High Powered Committe's Minutes of Meetings Will Now Be Provided To Prisoners In Hindi [Read Minutes]

The decision has been taken by the Committee upon a representation made by Advocate Sarthak Maggon wherein he had highlighted how the language barrier has made it difficult for the prisoners and their families to access the decisions taken by the High Powered Committee.

In a representation made before the Committee, Mr Maggon submitted that due to the language barrier, the deliberations of the Committee are not being understood by the persons for whose benefits these discussions are being held.

The letter states:

'It must be noted that during the past three months, we have received several frantic calls portraying mass hysteria amongst the family members and prison population alike, to understand the decisions made by the government especially in relation with extension of emergency parole, reasons for rejection of grant of emergency parole, status and medical health of incarcerated inmates, measures adopted by prison administration, spread of Covid 19 in the prison complexes etc.'

Mr Maggon had further highlighted that despite the advocates trying to communicate the decisions of the Committee to the prisoners through translated podcasts, conjectures still surface as the said news is not coming through official channels.

Mr Maggon had also cited the 'Prison Statistics India 2018' report to submit that the majority of the prisoners in Delhi are Hindi speaking.

'The idea of 'inclusion' is inherent in our Constitution and should be given its full effect. Moreover, without effective and complete information, the initiatives related to the safety and well-being of the incarcerated persons may never reach the grass root level', Mr Maggon submitted.

In light of these submissions, the High Powered Committee has decided to upload the minutes of all of its meetings, including the present one, on the website of DSLSA in Hindi.

Click Here To Download Minutes

[Read Minutes]