Cuttack: The Orissa High Court has asked the state government to consider deferring the return of prisoners, granted special parole due to COVID situation, back to jails.
The court made the request while adjudicating a PIL on the overcrowded condition of jails in the state on Thursday. The division bench comprising Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice AK Mohapatra said with COVID situation undergoing a change, many prisoners, who were released on directions of the High-Power Committee (HPC) of the state government, will return to the jails.
“Therefore, the court would like to request the HPC to consider whether, given the dire situation of overcrowding in many of the jails in Odisha, the return of prisoners post the COVID-19 phase, whenever that might happen, should be staggered or deferred till the time concrete measures to decongest the jails are undertaken”, TNIE quoted the Bench as saying.
The court, in its order, said 48 of 87 prisons in the state are overcrowded. While the capacity of the jails is 19,855, there are 21,765 inmates at present. The court also directed the DG Prisons to file an affidavit on the measures taken for reducing the prison population including the progress in adding to the capacity of overcrowded jails.
The HPC was formed on the directions of the Supreme Court on the issue of decongestion of jails. It included a High Court judge, who is the executive chairperson of Odisha State Legal Services Authority; principal secretary Home Department and Director General Prisons. The committee had granted special parole to 747 convicts in the state.
The bench fixed next date of hearing on the matter on March 8, 2022.
