E-Paper
HC asks Nabha Jail authorities to examine new inmates for Covid-19
The directive came from the high court bench of justice Gurvinder Singh Gill in response to a bail petition of three Nabha jail inmates who are accused of having caused loss to state exchequer to the tune of Rs 20 crore by evasion of payment of goods and services tax
CHANDIGARH The Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday directed the superintendent of Nabha Jail in Patiala to ensure that new inmates are medically examined and kept segregated from others for a period of 14 days so as to rule out any chance of spread of Covid-19 infection.
The directive came from the high court bench of justice Gurvinder Singh Gill in response to a bail petition of three Nabha jail inmates who are accused of having caused loss to state exchequer to the tune of Rs 20 crore by evasion of payment of goods and services tax. A complaint against them was lodged in November 2019 in Fatehgarh Sahib.
The bail was primarily sought on account of the prevalant conditions of spread of Covid-19 virus. It was also argued that the apex court on March 23 had asked all states to take steps to decongest jails so as to prevent spread of Covid-19.
The high court dismissed their plea observing that the move certainly cannot be treated as a windfall for all the prisoners even when there is no imminent threat or apprehension of spread of pandemic within the jail premises.
The court further observed that after imposition of lockdown, everything has come to a grinding halt and even the inflow of
fresh inmates would have been drastically reduced. “Since it is more than 3 weeks after the lockdown was imposed, the number of fresh entrants in the jail would be minimal,” the court said, further taking note of the submissions from the state’s counsel that there is no congestion in Nabha Jail and that the number of inmates is less than the capacity.
