Madras High Court takes jail officials to task for making prisoners do household chores

Justices S.M. Subramaniam and V. Sivagnanam direct Home Secretary and Director General of Prisons to conduct surprise inspections periodically

Condemning the practice of prison officials making convicts do household chores and torturing them when valuables go missing in their residences, the Madras High Court on Tuesday (October 29, 2024) directed the Home Secretary and Director General of Prisons and Correctional Services to conduct surprise inspections periodically.

A Division Bench of Justices S.M. Subramaniam and V. Sivagnanam ordered the initiation of appropriate action in the event of receipt of any complaint or information related to prison authorities making either undertrial prisoners or convicts perform household chores at their official residences.

The orders were passed after a police inquiry, ordered by the court, prima facie revealed that R. Rajalakshmi, Deputy Inspector General of Prisons, Vellore Range, who has since been suspended, had reportedly engaged eights convicts in household work. Some of them were allegedly beaten up by the prison guards when cash and jewels went missing from her residence, the probe revealed.

The police found the DIG had used the convicts for cleaning the house, ironing clothes, washing them, cooking, poultry care, gardening, and carpentry work.

After taking note that a criminal case had been registered against the suspended DIG, Additional Superintendent of Vellore Central Prison A. Abdul Rahman, and 12 others, and that they had been subjected to disciplinary proceedings too, the judges ordered the continuation of those proceedings.

They made it clear that the criminal case need not be a bar for the officials to conclude the disciplinary proceedings at the earliest. The orders were passed while disposing of a writ petition filed by S. Kalavathi, the mother one of the convicts S. Sivakumar, through her counsel P. Pugalenthi.

Quoting Mahatma Gandhi, that “all criminals should be treated as patients and the jails should be hospitals admitting this class of patients for treatment and cure. It is a sign of a diseased mind,” the Bench said prisoners should not be treated as slaves and tortured in inhuman ways.

“It is necessary to send a strong message to the prison authorities that they are not supposed to abuse their official position... Power must be exercised with care and caution. Abuse of power when having control over powerless prisoners will create havoc and undermine the ethos of criminal justice system,” the Bench wrote.

It went on to state: “The convicts ought to be punished only in the manner known to law... Subjecting prisoners to cruelty will propagate further commission of crimes by them... There are no good or bad people. It is always the circumstances that turn a man into a different person either for good or bad.”

Published - October 29, 2024 05:40 pm IST