Srinagar: PDP president and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti has filed a petition before the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, seeking directions for the immediate transfer of all undertrial prisoners from the Union territory who are currently lodged in jails outside J&K.
The plea urges that such prisoners be brought back to local jails unless the authorities present case-specific, written reasons showing compelling necessity to keep them outside J&K, and that such cases be subjected to quarterly judicial review.
“The petitioner, being a political activist and a former chief minister, a lot of family members of undertrials have been requesting the petitioner to take up the issue in this petition with the government.
“The petitioner urged the government for the return of undertrial prisoners who are lodged in jails outside J&K, but no action has been taken by the government, as a result of which the petitioner, in public interest, has preferred the present petition and for the said reason this instant petition is maintainable,” Mufti said in her plea.
“The petitioner under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, humbly seeking immediate intervention of this court by writ of Mandamus seeking immediate repatriation and direct respondents, including Union government, J&K home department and DGP to transfer forthwith all under-trial prisoners belonging to J&K who are presently lodged in prisons outside the Union territory to jails within J&K, unless the jail authorities place before this court case-specific, written reasons demonstrating unavoidable, compelling necessity; in such exceptional cases, require quarterly judicial review,” the plea read.
Post the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019, Mufti said, numerous J&K residents facing investigation or trial in J&K were lodged in prisons outside the UT.
“FIRs are registered and trials convened within J&K, yet incarceration occurs hundreds of kilometres away, defeating court access, family visits, and counsel conferences, and imposing crippling travel costs on indigent families,” she said in the plea.
She also challenged the continuing practice of lodging undertrials belonging to J&K in prisons outside the Union territory, and said the practice relegates undertrials to a condition worse than convicts, violates the presumption of innocence, and frustrates core Article 21, which guarantees family contact, effective access to counsel, and a meaningful, speedy trial.
“The international and national standards, including the Model Prison Manual, mandate humane treatment, regular family and lawyer interviews, and differential treatment of undertrials from convicts. The continued transfer and housing of J&K undertrials in far-off states systematically denies these guarantees and effectively punishes by process,” she said.
Mufti also said that many trials involve voluminous evidence and large witness lists, requiring sustained, private, document-based consultation between the lawyer and the client, which is impossible in practice when the undertrial is housed in a far-off state prison.
The PDP president also sought various steps related to family and counsel access.
“Framing and enforcing an access protocol ensuring minimum weekly family interviews in person, unrestricted privileged lawyer-client interviews subject to reasonable regulations, and no denial on cost or escort pretexts,” she said in her plea, demanding directions to legal authorities for monitoring compliance and filing quarterly reports.
She also demanded to mandate priority physical production of repatriated undertrials and fixing outer timelines for evidence recording and prevent adjournments attributable to custody logistics.
Mufti advocated for a two-member oversight and grievance redress committee comprising a retired high court judge and member of State Legal Services Authority (SLSA) to audit undertrial locations, family-contact logs, lawyer-interview registers, and production orders, recommend disciplinary action for non-compliance and submit bi-monthly status reports to the court.
The petition also sought reimbursement of reasonable travel and accommodation for one family member per month to meet the undertrial in the out-of-state prison, verified by prison records and tickets till the repatriation of the prisoner is complete.
