Video-conferencing of prisoners catching on in Rajasthan

Jaipur, May 10 (UNI) Authorities in Rajasthan are mulling over video-conferencing for prisoners to save costs and time of trials as well as to prevent unsavoury incidents like a brawl between allegedly drunk policemen and an undertrial here recently.

State police Director General K S Bains told UNI that video-conferencing has been started in Jaipur and Jodhpur jails and more jails are to be covered under the scheme but in a phase-wise manner.

''High-risk prisoners are usually put to trial through video-conferencing, to reduce their escape possibilities considerably,'' he said.

Jaipur Central Jail's Deputy Superintendent Suman Maliwal said the unique project was started in Jaipur and Jodhpur simultaneously in 2006 and is expected to prevent such incidents in future.

''An average of 14 prisoners each day are being subjected to court trial through video-conferencing, which is saving the exchequer huge amounts,'' she said, adding that video-conferencing was especially useful for those convicts who are taken to court for just extending their remand. ''All the hassle of taking the prisoner to court along with security is not needed in this, saving considerable time, energy and wasteful expenditure,''she said.

Jodhpur's district court and Central Jail has been linked recently to the video-conferencing facilities.

According to National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) report of June 2004, over 70 percent of people in jails are undertrials.

Many undertrials continue to suffer in jail due to the slow judicial system, which is already overburdened with cases and unable to give them a hearing. One of the solutions was thought to be video-conferencing which enabled prisoners to get a quicker hearing, many times facilitating their release.

The option was authorised by the Supreme Court in 2001. The step which surprised many given the normally conservative appproach of the law, was not a sudden decision. The Supreme Court, the Department of Information Technology and National Informatics Centre had been working with Ministeries of Home and Law since the early 1990s to create the system.

Bihar was the first state in the country to adopt video-conferencing but Andhra Pradesh was the first to implement it at a cost of Rs 1.5 lakh.

In April 2003, Supreme Court permitted trial judges to record evidence from witnesses living abroad via video-conferencing.

Law experts and counsellors say video-conferencing is especially useful in child abuse cases where victims are shielded from the trauma of facing their assailants via a one-way video link.

''Video-conferencing has curbed corruption, increased accountability and reduced adjournments, effectively reducing the trial period of prisoners,'' Ms Maliwal said.

It also makes a court able to take a look at prisons and reduce harrasment of prisoners and make the jail authorities more accountable.

Besides, video-conferencing is expected to eliminate the scope of undertrial escape and save exchequer an estmated Rs 3.5 crore annually.

UNI