Committee on jail reforms to be constituted within a week, Centre informs SC

The Centre Wednesday informed the Supreme Court that it would constitute within a week the 3-member committee, to be headed by former apex court judge Amitava Roy, to look into the issue of jail reforms in the country.

The Centre told a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur, S Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta that the authorities were going through the September 25 order of the apex court in this regard and the panel was likely to be constituted within a week.

The Supreme Court had on September 25 constituted a 3-member committee to look into the issue of jail reforms and make recommendations on several aspects, including the overcrowding in prisons.

The court had said that the committee would also comprise of Inspector General of Police of Bureau of Police Research and Development and Director General (Prisons) of Delhi's Tihar Jail.

It had asked the Ministry of Home Affairs to issue a notification constituting the 'Supreme Court Committee on Prison Reforms'.

The bench had passed the order while hearing a matter relating to inhuman conditions in 1,382 prisons across India.

During the hearing, the bench also dealt with the issue related to keeping a death-row convict in solitary confinement in jail.

It said the issue would be heard on October 8.

In its September 25 order, the court had said that besides other issues, the committee would review the implementation of guidelines contained in Model Prison Manual 2016 by states and union territories (UTs) and also recommendations made by the Parliamentary Committee on Empowerment of Women in its report tabled in the Parliament titled 'Women in Detention and Access to Justice'.

It had earlier taken strong exception to overcrowding of jails across the country and said prisoners also have human rights and cannot be kept like "animals".

The court had earlier passed a slew of directions over unnatural deaths in jails and on prison reforms across India.