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National Training on Prisoners' Rights Held in Sonepat, Haryana from 29Th June-1St July REPORT OF THE NATIONAL TRAINING ON PRISONERS’ RIGHTS BY Centre for Constitutional Rights, India (CCRI), Human Rights Law Network (HRLN) 29th June – 1st July 2018 Venue: O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonepat, Haryana Report of the National Training on Prisoners’ Rights Socio Legal Information Centre* 2018 Editor Ritu Kumar Published by Human Rights Law Network (A division of Socio Legal Information Centre) 576, Masjid Road, jangpura New Delhi- 110014, India Ph: +91-11-24379855/56 Email: [email protected] Printed by XXXXXXXX Disclaimer The views and opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily views of the HRLN. Every effort has been made to avoid errors, omissions, and inaccuracies. However, for inadvertent errors or discrepancies that may remain nonetheless, the HRLN takes the sole responsibility. *Any section of this volume may be reproduced without prior permission for public interest purposes with appropriate acknowledgement. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Human Rights Law Network (HRLN) would like to acknowledge the support of O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU) and the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) in organising the National Training on Prisoners' Rights held in Sonepat, Haryana from 29th June-1st July. We would also like to acknowledge the support of Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), International Bridges to Justice India (IBJ), and India Vision Foundation (IVF) for co-partnering with us in holding the National Training. We are grateful to the Resource Persons for sharing their experiences, as well as the lawyers, activists, researchers and students for participating in the training programme and making it a success. We would like to extend a special word of thanks to Mr. Prashant Singh from JGU; Mr. Ajay Verma from IBJ; Ms. Madhurima Dhanuka and Ms. Sugandha Shankar from CHRI; and Mr. Vijay Raghavan from TISS for extending their cooperation in putting this training programme together. Above all, a special word of thanks to all the interns, especially Ms. Ambikka Singh, Ms. Megha Chawla, and Ms. Andrina D'Souza, and the team of HRLN without whose dedication and hard work the Training and this Report would not have been possible. RITU KUMAR Coordinator, Prisoners' Rights Initiative, HRLN INTRODUCTION Centre for Constitutional Rights India, Human Rights Law Network (HRLN) in collaboration with O.P. Jindal Global University, National Legal Services Authority (NALSA), Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), International Bridges to Justice India (IBJ), Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and India Vision Foundation (IVF) organised a 3-day National Training on Prisoners' Rights. The training was organised at O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonepat, Haryana from 29th June – 1st July 2018. The training was conducted with the objective to: 1. Educate and inform lawyers, activists, and concerned civil society groups about the issues faced by undertrial prisoners, and equip them with tools to address the same. 2. Build and strengthen the legal aid system in India through fostering partnerships with District, State and National legal aid service authorities, lawyers, NGOs and civil society groups. 3. Build partnerships and a network of prison reform activists, lawyers, NGOs working with prisoners, academics, and other concerned members of the civil society to bring them on a common platform. The training had about 250 participants from all over the country including advocates working with state and district legal service authorities, as well as NGOs, researchers, academicians, eminent social activists, civil society groups, law students, etc. working in the field of human rights in general and prisoners’ rights in particular. The 3-day training programme provided an insight to the participants about the various issues that relate to prisons like the prison conditions, prison legal aid schemes, legal procedures from the role of magistrates to the role of lawyers, the various directions of the Supreme Court with regard to checking unnecessary detentions, constitution and working of undertrial review committees, directions and guidelines with regard to investigations in deaths in prisons, constitution of visitors' boards, functioning of jail adalats, etc. During the course of the 3-day training programme, the participants had opportunity to hear and interact with distinguished experts in the field, such as, Mr. Chaman Lal, Former Special Rapporteur, National Human Rights Commission; Justice A.K. Mittal, Acting Chief Justice of Punjab & Haryana High Court; Member Secretaries of NALSA and Delhi State Legal Service Authority; Senior Advocates like Colin Gonsalves, Navkiran Singh; actvisits like Soni Sori, as well as academicians like Prof. Mrinal Satish, Prof. Aparna Chandra, Prof. Vijay Raghavan, Prof. Dr. Y.S.R. Murthy, to name a few. The training also had participation from senior prison officials and senior government officials like Dr. Kiran Bedi, Shri Ajay Kashyap, DG Tihar, and Dr. Upneet Lalli, Dy. Director RICA, who have been involved in running the prisons as well as making policies in order to improve the prison system. At the end of the 3 days, a Plan of Action was formulated, where the panel lawyers, activists, and lawyers working with HRLN, CHRI, IBJ and TISS identified issues in their own States. These included issues on legal aid like access to trial court records; release on personal bond; determining the bail amount as per the socio-economic capacity of the arrestee; release of prisoners with mental illness; appointment of counselors, doctors, gynaecologists and female doctors for women prisoners; appointment of a strong and independent visitors board; improvement of mulaqat infrastructure; etc. This Report comprehensively documents the proceedings of the National Training to enable the lawyers, researchers, and students of law, interested in issues of prisoners' rights to understand the critical issues that are faced by the prisoners and to help them overcome these to the extent possible. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………………..ii I. Inaugural Address - Sr. Adv. Colin Gonsalves…………………………………………………………………………1 - Prof. Dr. Y.S.R. Murthy……………………………………………………………………………2 II. Overview of Prison Reforms - Mr. Chaman Lal….………………………………………….4 III. Key Note Addresses – Dr. Kiran Bedi………………….…………………………………………7 – Prof. Dr. C. Raj Kumar ….……………………………………….9 IV. Prison Conditions A. Maharashtra - Prof. Vijay Raghavan…………………………………………………..11 B. Haryana- Ms. Sabika Abbas ……………………….………………………………………13 C. Bihar - Adv. Anshu Raj………………………………….…………………………………….14 D. U.P- Mr. Tapan Vahal …………………………………..……………………………………16 E. Odisha - Adv. Jyotiranjan Senapati…………………..………………………………...17 V. Prison Legal Aid schemes Overview - Justice A.K. Mittal…………………………………….………………………………..19 NALSA – Mr. Alok Agarwal………………………………………….……………………………....20 DSLSA – Mr. Sanjiv Jain……………………………………………….……………………………….22 VI. Women and women with children Conditions of Women Prisons in India - A Study by National Commission for Women - Ms. Avni Bahri………………………………………………………………………25 Women in custody – Adv. Anu Narula……………………………………………………….27 VII. Vulnerable Categories in Prisons A. Mentally Ill in Prisons – Dr. Anbu Dorai & Dr. Sandeep Govil………………29 B. Disabled, sick, elderly in prisons – Ms. Seema Baquer & Mr. Nipun Malhotra……………………………………………………………………………………………31 C. Juveniles - Mr. Ranvir & Adv. Ajay Verma ………………………………………….36 D. Foreign Nationals - Ms. Palak Chaudhari…………………………………………… 38 VIII. Checking Unnecessary detentions A. Role of Magistrate - Prof. Vijay Raghavan & Mr. Raja Bagga ………………41 B. Lok Adalats and Jail Adalats – Mr. S.S. Rathi, Adv. Silvin Kale, Mr. Narendra Singh.................................................................................44 C. Role of Lawyers - Adv. Ajay Verma….………………………………………………….46 D. Role of Students - Prof. Ajay Pandey, Ms. Amrita Paul, Ms. Garima Tiwari……………………………..………………………………………..........47 IX. SC: Re- Inhuman Conditions in 1382 Prisons A. Overview – Adv. Gaurav Agarwal…………………………………………………………51 B. Undertrial Review Committees – Mr. S.S. Rathi, Mr. Sunil Chauhan, Mr. Narendra Singh, Ms.Sugandha Shankar..……………………………………….54 C. Sentence Review Boards – Adv. Sunil Gupta…..…….……………………………..60 X. How to do a PIL – Sr. Adv. Colin Gonsalves………………..….……………………………..62 XI. Leading judgements on Prisoners' Rights A. Dr. Aparna Chandra, NLUD……………….………………………………………………....64 B. Dr. Mrinal Satish, NLUD……………………….……………………………………………….70 XII. Political Prisoners and Prisoners in Conflict Zones A. Ms. Soni Sori, Chhattisgarh……………………………….………………………………….74 B. Adv. Amarnath Pandey, Chhattisgarh…………………………….…………………….78 C. Adv. Kishore Narayan, Chhattisgarh ………………………………………….…………79 D. Adv. Arun Ferreira………………………………………………………………………….…….80 E. Adv. Shah Faisal, Kashmir………….………………………………………………………….81 F. Adv. Shadab Ansari, Jharkhand…….……………………………………………………….82 XIII. Custodial Torture and Deaths in Prisons A. Prof. (Dr.) Y.S.R. Murthy……………………………………………………………………….84 B. Shri D. Suresh Kumar……………………………………………………………………..…….85 C. Adv. Sunil Gupta……………………………………………………………………………..……86 D. Shri Pupul Dutta, NHRC……………………………………………………………………..…87 E. Adv Navkiran Singh, LFHRI…………………………………………………………………...89 F. Dr. Murali Karnam……………………………………………………………………………….90 XIV. Legal representation of prisoners on death row – Case studies - Ms.Shreya Rastogi……………………………………...92 XV. Visitors' Boards - Ms. Madhurima Dhanuka & Adv. Ritu Kumar…………………..97 XVI. Changes needed in the Model Prisons Manual A. Ms. Sugandha
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