Srinagar, Oct 25 (UNI) Former Chief Minister and Peoples Democratic Party President Mehbooba Mufti has approached the Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court seeking directions for the local lodgement of Kashmiri prisoners and comprehensive prison reforms across the union Territory.
The petitioner, invoking Article 226 of the Constitution of India, sought the Court’s immediate intervention to direct the respondents to forthwith repatriate and transfer all under-trial prisoners belonging to Jammu and Kashmir who are currently lodged in prisons outside the union Territory to jails within JK.
The petitioner further requested that, in exceptional cases where such transfer is not feasible, the jail authorities be required to submit case-specific, written reasons demonstrating unavoidable and compelling necessity, subject to quarterly judicial review.
The respondents in the petition include the union of India through the Home Secretary, the union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir through its Home Secretary, the Director General of Police (JK), and the Director General of Prisons (JK).
“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 has urged the government on the issue of return of the under trial prisoners who are lodged in jails outside JK be brought to jails in JK 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,” Mehbooba said in her plea.
The petition also challenged the continuing practice of lodging under-trials belonging to JK in prisons outside the union Territory, even though their FIRs are registered and trials conducted within JK.
“The practice relegates under-trials 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 petition read.
“The Supreme Court has repeatedly affirmed that prisoners remain persons with enforceable fundamental rights, and that prison power must yield to constitutional protections when fundamental freedoms are imperilled. The International and national standards, including the Model Prison Manua,l mandate humane treatment, regular family and lawyer interviews, and differential treatment of under-trials from convicts. The continued transfer and housing of JK under-trials in far-off States systematically denies these guarantees and effectively punishes by process,” the plea read.
Mehbooba pleaded that Post 5 August 2019- the day Article 370 was abrogated- numerous JK residents facing investigation or trial in JK were lodged in prisons outside the UT.
“FIRs are registered and trials convened within J&K, yet incarceration occurs hundreds of kilometres away, defeating the court access, family visits, and counsel conferences, and imposing crippling travel costs on indigent families. Most of the undertrials cannot meet their family as the cost of such travels is enormous and is not possible to travel regularly, making the process of trial itself a punishment,” the plea read.
Mehbooba said she had given representation to the government on September 5, about the grievances of the undertrials and their families.
She also sought framing of a Family and Counsel Access Protocol, ensuring at least weekly in-person family meetings, unrestricted privileged lawyer-client interviews, and state reimbursement of travel expenses for one family member each month until repatriation is complete.
The petition urges the Legal Services Authorities to monitor compliance and file quarterly reports.
The plea also proposes the formation of a Two-Member Oversight and Grievance Redress Committee — comprising a retired District Judge and a State Legal Services Authority member — to audit undertrial records, family-contact logs, and lawyer-interview registers, and to recommend disciplinary action for non-compliance.
She has sought judicial intervention to safeguard the rights of hundreds of J&K under-trials and ensure constitutional compliance by prison authorities.
