Fill up vacant posts of medical officers in Maharashtra prisons, vaccinate inmates: HC to State

The Bombay high court (HC) on Wednesday directed the state government to fill up one-third of vacant posts of medical officers and other medical staff in jail hospitals across Maharashtra and ordered the prison authorities to abide by the new standard operating procedures (SOPs) of the high powered committee (HPC) to decongest jails in light of the second Covid wave

The Bombay high court (HC) on Wednesday directed the state government to fill up one-third of vacant posts of medical officers and other medical staff in jail hospitals across Maharashtra and ordered the prison authorities to abide by the new standard operating procedures (SOPs) of the high powered committee (HPC) to decongest jails in light of the second Covid wave.

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The court asked the prison authorities to follow SOPs of the Central government for vaccinating prison inmates, including those not having Aadhar cards.

A division bench of chief justice Dipankar Datta and justice Girish Kulkarni, while hearing the suo motu (on its own) public interest litigation (PIL) based on the report published in Hindustan Times which highlighted the rise in Covid-19 cases in two months from 47 to 188 in the prisons in Maharashtra, was informed that as per its directions in a previous hearing the prison authorities had filed a reply. The reply stated that there were 35,124 inmates lodged in various jails across Maharashtra and there was a shortage of medical officers.

During the previous hearing on April 29, the court had observed that Taloja Central prison had only three Ayurveda doctors and no Class I medical officers or other staff as required under Prison Rules, 2015. Expressing concern over the death of two prisoners and a jail staff due to Covid-19, the bench had questioned the authorities on the availability of qualified medical staff in prison hospitals and asked the Centre and the state if prison inmates needed to have Aadhaar cards before they get vaccinated.

On Wednesday, the court noted that as per the state’s reply, nearly one-third posts of medical officers across jails in Maharashtra were lying vacant and observed that while all prisons should have requisite and able medical staff, the state’s reply was silent on the issue.

The bench further noted, “We are not asking you to increase the number of sanctioned posts. At least fill up the existing posts. Already one year of the pandemic is over and you cannot depend on already burdened state-run hospitals. All jails must have at least sanctioned posts of medical staff filled.” The court further noted that apart from Taloja jail, prisons at Kolhapur, Amravati, Nagpur, Mumbai Central and Yerawada (Pune) also did not have any Class 1 medical officers.

On the issue of vaccinating prison staff and inmates, Professor Vijay Raghavan, member of Centre for Criminology and Justice, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), who is assisting the court in the suo motu PIL submitted that vaccination should be done in camp mode inside prisons like other states had done rather than taking the inmates to civil hospitals. He also said that HIV positive prisoners or pregnant women, patients of Tuberculosis could be considered by the HPC for release.

The prison authorities informed the court that jail staff were considered frontline workers and out of 3,818 prison staff members across 46 jails, 3,252 were vaccinated. It also said that 10,161 inmates above 18 years of age had Aadhar cards.

The state and central government further informed the bench that on May 6, the union government had issued SOPs allowing registration of groups of people who did not possess any photo ID card or Aadhar cards on Co-WIN portal. Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh for the Centre said that as per these SOPs, prison inmates could be vaccinated despite not having Aadhar cards by registering through the Co-WIN portal.

Directing the state government to reply to its queries, HC posted the further hearing to May 19.