Ensure Prisoners Can Access Kiosks In Their Own Language: Madras High Court To State

Justice Sunder Mohan thus directed the authorities to approach the National Informatics Centre to change the languages to English and Tamil so that the kiosk was useful in Tamil Nadu.

The court was hearing a case where a man had sought interim compensation for the illegal detention of his son for more than 8 months. The son Chokkar, who was the second accused in a murder case was convicted by the lower court. However, when the first accused went for appeal, the conviction was set aside and he was acquitted. The court noted that since Chokkar was also convicted on the same grounds, he was also entitled for acquittal though he had not preferred an appeal. The court thus had directed Chokkar to be released from jail.

Chokkar, however, continued to be in police custody for another nine months before his father approached the high court. His counsel submitted that this happened because petitioner's son was not aware of the acquittal order. He made several recommendations so that such incidents do not happen in future. This included installation of Kiosks that support local language.