Supreme Court Takes Note Of Prison Management Software Developed By Techie After Jail Term

The Supreme Court has suggested exploring the feasibility of adopting on a country wide basis the 'prison software' developed by a software engineer who himself served 13 months in jail.

Amit Mishra, a software engineer, served 13 months in Bhondsi jail before he was acquitted in 2014. He was accused in a case in relation to his wife's suicide. In June 2015, he founded a company 'Invader Technologies'. Taking note of the situation he himself witnessed in the prison, he focused on developing a Prison/Prisoner Information Management Software named Phoenix.

Important Features of Phoenix Prison/Prisoner Information Management System are: Detail information of all prisons and prisoner Inmate profiling - Name, father name, Address, Contact No. with complete demographic Gate Control (on finger print identification) with automatic gate -To ensure security and In-Out history. Meta search engine (for finger print identification)- 100% positioning and Professional quality customization Budget Management- Top-down budget entry Decision support system- Helps automate managerial processes. Leave (Parole/Furlough) Management System- Process flow of Parole/Furlough for eligible inmates Release management system –Ensure transparent and faster disposal.

 Now this software is reportedly used in prisons in Haryana after being approved by the Ministry of Home Affairs in 2015.

Recently while considering a special leave petition, this was brought to the notice of the Supreme Court bench comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Hemant Gupta.

"One of the detenus/convicts in Haryana one Shri Amit Mishra has prepared a software which the State Government of Haryana itself thought is worth implementing and is supposed to be quite comprehensive. The feasibility of adopting that on a country wide basis with modifications, if any, can also be explored.", the Court said.

The bench was considering a matter relating to guidelines for time-bound consideration of remission applications of prisoners.

The bench observed that the National Legal Services Authority should take up the task of having a comprehensive guideline in this behalf i.e. how the matter of seeking remission after serving minimum sentence as per the respective State policies should be dealt with, whether in narcotics matters there should a policy and if so, to what effect, how in matters of lesser sentence can legal assistance be provided when the cause arises rather than years later.

The bench also took note of the issue of delay in giving legal assistance to cases registered directly from jails(A bench headed by the CJI is also examining this issue).

Click here to read/download the order