Meghalaya govt to file affidavit on state prisoners

Shillong, Mar 29 (UNI) The Meghalaya government has directed its Joint Resident Commissioner(JRC), Delhi, to file an affidavit before the Supreme Court regarding the prisoners in the State.

The government's directives came in the wake of the Supreme Court order directing the Home Secretaries of 12 states, including Meghalaya, to appear before the Court regarding the prisoners languishing in jails, a senior official said here today.

In Shillong jail, at present there are 282 male and nine female's inmates, among whom 230 male and seven female inmates are under-trial prisoners.

The number of convicts in the jail are 40 male and seven female.

In spite of its capacity of 150, the Shillong jail is now accommodating 291 prisoners.

The apex court bench, comprising Justices HK Sema and VS Sirpurkar, warned that it would issue bailable warrants against the officials to secure their presence if they fail to appear as directed.

The Bench passed the order while dealing with a PIL filed by an advocate complaining that several thousand prisoners were suffering in jails without proper trial and other facilities.

Besides Meghalaya, the states, whose Home Secretaries have been summoned, include - Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Goa, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, MP, Tripura and Nagaland.

UNI