Jammu, Nov 3 Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and president of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mehbooba Mufti, on Monday appeared before the high court in Jammu in connection with a PIL filed by her seeking the return of all undertrials from outside jails to the union territory.
Mufti had filed the PIL before the J&K High Court, urging it to order the return of undertrial prisoners from outside prisons back to the UT.
The petition titled Mehbooba Mufti vs Union of India seeks immediate judicial intervention to address what she describes as a violation of the fundamental rights of detainees.
Through her counsel, Mufti has pleaded that after August 5, 2019, when Article 370 was revoked and Jammu and Kashmir downgraded to a UT, many undertrials were shifted to jails in distant states. The PIL says that their detention hundreds of kilometres away affects their court access, family visits, and counsel conferences and imposes crippling travel costs on the families.
The petition contends that such detentions breach the rights guaranteed under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution, particularly the rights to equality, family contact, effective legal aid, and a fair and speedy trial.
She further stated that the undertrials cannot meet their families as the cost of such travels is enormous, and it is also not possible for the relatives to travel regularly, making the process of trial itself a punishment.
"The evidence is extensive, and the witness lists are long, necessitating regular and confidential consultations between the accused and their lawyers. However, this becomes impossible in practice when the undertrial is housed in a far-off state prison,” the petition says.
It must be mentioned that in many cases, high-risk detainees are shifted to prisons outside the UT for security reasons.
The direction of the high court is now awaited after hearing the petition.
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