Overcrowding of prisoners in Tihar Jail, PIL moved to Delhi HC

A Public Interest Litigation has been moved in the Delhi High Court in relation to the overcrowding of prisoners in the Tihar Prison Complex, Delhi.

The complaint claimed that Tihar Jail had more detainees than it could actually house in each barrack and that there had been a significant increase in the number of inmates overall. An NGO named Nyaya Foundation filed the appeal, claiming that the needless overcrowding of such jails amounted to a rejection of the inmates’ fundamental rights, which are protected by Article 21 of the Indian Constitution and include the right to a peaceful and dignified lifestyle. The plea claimed that because of the prison complex’s extreme overcrowding, the detainees’ lives are severely impacted by the mental and physical abuse they endure.

According to the plea, people arrested in any case which is punishable lesser than 3 years and they have committed the offence for the first time, the probation report must be considered to release them on bail.

The plea also claimed that unneeded arrests cause the jail complex to become overcrowded. In these situations, when an innocent person is detained, he or she is forced to deal with the conditions within the jail and ends up doing crimes that they would not have otherwise committed.
The petition claims that notwithstanding the Top Court’s ruling on the statute, arbitrary arrests continue to occur. In clear contravention of the law, the accused are being taken into jail and imprisoned. The chaos that results from the same acts as a stimulant for the prisoners’ mental suffering, obliterating their existence and making a mockery of human rights laws.

To ease the burden of Tihar, jail complexes in Rohini and Mandoli were established in the year 2004 and 2016 respectively, but their condition is no different.

Tihar, one of the largest prison complexes in the world with nine central prisons, has the capacity to house 5,200 criminals, but 13,183 detainees are currently housed in its various central jails, according to the office of the Director General of Prisons in response to an RTI. Additionally packed are the prison complexes that were meant to lighten Tihar’s load. The six central jails in Mandoli have a total capacity of 1,050, but 2,037 inmates are now housed there. The capacity of Rohini’s single central jail is 3,776 inmates, but 4,355 detainees are currently being held there for a variety of reasons, according to the petition.