Justice Amitava Roy (retd.) Committee, appointed by the Supreme Court on prison reforms, has recommended that every new prisoner should be allowed a free phone call a day to his family members to see him through his first week in jail.
- The 300-page report was taken up for hearing on February 6, 2020 before a Bench led by Chief Justice Sharad A. Bobde.
- The report described the preparation of food in kitchens as “primitive and arduous”. The kitchens are congested and unhygienic and the diet has remained unchanged for years now. It recommended modern cooking facilities, canteens to buy essential items and trial through video-conferencing.
- The committee concluded that most prisons are “teeming with undertrial prisoners”, whose numbers are highly disproportionate to those of convicts. There should be at least one lawyer for every 30 prisoners. This is not the case now.
- The committee has suggested that speedy trial remains one of the best ways to remedy the unwarranted phenomenon of over-crowding.
Background
- The Supreme Court had in September 2018 appointed the Justice Roy Committee to examine the various problems plaguing prisons, from overcrowding to lack of legal advice to convicts to issues of remission and parole.
- Besides Justice Roy, a former Supreme Court judge, the members included an IG, Bureau of Police Research and Development, and the DG (Prisons), Tihar Jail.
