Delhi govt to decongest all jails in the city, HC told

Delhi government on Monday told Delhi High Court that it has decided to decongest all the jails in the national capital in a bid to prevent the spread of novel coronavirus.

The government told a bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Subramonium Prasad that convicts, who are eligible, will be granted special parole or furlough and said that it is going to amend its prison rules to serve this purpose.

The court, while disposing of the plea moved by advocates Shobha Gupta and Rajesh Sachdeva, asked the Delhi government to take steps in this regard.

The petition filed by the two sought directions to immediately release all the under trials and convicts with maximum imprisonment up to five years and fine and to immediately segregate the ailing inmates and provide proper facilities and arrangements for examination and treatment of prisoners convicted of heinous crimes with more than five years of imprisonment.

"In the light of the recent outbreak of coronavirus, it submitted that if the situation is not controlled it may lead to a very dangerous and uncontrollable situation, the spread of coronavirus which has already reached on all the three jail premises," the petition said.

It said that Tihar Jail had quarantined about 18 inmates, who are suspected of having coronavirus, as on March 18 and added that eight foreign nationals have also been isolated in the prison.

"A similar situation is seen in the Rohini Jail as well, where three persons from jail number 3, five from jail number 5, three from jail number 8-9 and one from jail number 10 have been put up in isolation. Similar isolations have been done in Mandawali Jail as well," the petition added.

The plea said that it is the need of the hour to take precautionary measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus inside the prisons.

It also said that various other state governments have taken proposed measures for the release of several prisoners apprehending the outbreak of coronavirus inside the jails.