Delhi HC asks state to form panel to manage open jails

The Delhi High Court has ordered the formation of a monitoring committee for Open Correctional Institutions to enhance management and prisoner rehabilitation.

New Delhi

The matter will next be heard on July 24. (Representative photo)

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday took suo motu cognisance of the establishment, functioning, and expansion of Open Correctional Institutions (OCIs or open jails) and asked the Delhi government to constitute a monitoring committee to manage them.

OCIs or open prisons are a reform-focused model of incarceration that differs markedly from conventional prisons. They operate with minimal physical security—without high walls, barbed wire, or intensive guarding—and house inmates on the basis of good conduct, who are expected to adhere to a system of self-discipline.

In its order, the top court further directed every state and Union territory to constitute a monitoring committee for OCI management. This committee is to be headed by the executive chairman of the State Legal Services Authority or a nominee, and comprise the home secretary and a senior prisons officer not below the rank of deputy inspector general. It tasked the monitoring committee to ensure compliance with the judgment, overseeing the utilisation and expansion of OCIs, facilitating the timely transfer of eligible prisoners from closed prisons, and addressing systemic impediments in implementation.

A bench comprising chief justice DK Upadhyaya and Tejas Karia took cognisance of the matter on a Supreme Court order dated February 26. The apex court, while dealing with a petition filed by civil rights activist Suhas Chakma seeking effective use of OCIs to deal with crowding in jails and advancing rehabilitation, directed high courts to register suo motu petitions to monitor compliance with its judgment, particularly regarding the establishment, functioning, and expansion of open jails.

The high court on Wednesday said that once formed, the committee should meet to devise strategies for implementing the Supreme Court’s order, assess the current situation, and identify prisoners eligible for transfer to open prisons, and thus asked the principal secretary (home) of the Delhi government to file an affidavit, giving details of the steps taken in compliance with the February 26 order.

“In view of the aforesaid order, let the suo motu PIL be registered. He (Principal Secretary Home Delhi government) should constitute the committee. The committee should meet, chalk out strategies to implement the order of the Supreme Court, make an assessment of the situation currently and identify the prisoners who can be transferred to the open prison,” the bench said.

It also made Centre, Delhi government, Delhi State Legal Services Authority a party and appointed senior advocate Arvind Nigam as amicus.

The matter will next be heard on July 24.