The Odisha High Court has passed significant directions to ensure that all prisoners and undertrials lodged in prisons of the state are vaccinated against coronavirus.
Chief Justice Dr. S. Muralidhar and Justice BP Routray have been hearing two petitions concerning the prison conditions and facilities in the state jails. Senior Advocate Gautam Mishra, who is also the Amicus Curiae in this matter, informed the Bench that with respect to vaccination in jails, many prison inmates may not have identity documents for registration on the COWIN portal.
To this, the court ordered, “Accordingly, it is directed that the State Government will make appropriate arrangements to ensure that no prison inmate is denied vaccination only on the ground that the inmate is unable to get registered on the COWIN portal. Alternate arrangements should be made to ensure that vaccination is not denied to such inmates.”
Besides vaccination for all, the court also considered that some inmates in jails across the state are eligible for commutation and remission. The order read, “On the issue of commutation and remission of the sentences of prisoners found eligible for that benefit, the Member Secretary, OSLSA is directed to coordinate with the State Government and take steps in that regard in a time-bound manner. The Member Secretary will apprise this Court of the developments on the next date.”
Bombay and Gauhati High Courts have also passed orders on vaccination for all prisoners in their respective states. The Gauhati High Court has asked the Assam Government to file its response on a suo motu PIL concerning jail inmates, who are allegedly not being vaccinated against Covid-19.
In Maharashtra, the Bombay High Court has directed the authorities to inoculate all accused persons above the age of 45, immediately upon their arrest. Considering the pathetic conditions in Delhi jails, People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) has written an open letter to Chief Justice DN Patel (Delhi High Court) to increase testing capacity and other medical resources within jails.
There are presently 67 active cases of Covid among jail inmates and eleven among jail staff, including a jail superintendent and two prison doctors. Overall, around 200 prisoners and 300 staff members had tested positive across Delhi jails and there has been very little reporting of the status of health of inmates over the past one week.
The matter before the Odisha High Court will be taken up on May 12.
The order may be read here:
Related:
PUDR writes open letter to Delhi HC’s Chief Justice over Covid surge in prisons
Covid-19: Bombay HC directs State to vaccinate accused persons above 45 years upon arrest
Gauhati HC seeks State’s response on vaccinating prisoners
Bombay HC takes suo motu cognisance of Covid surge in prisons