New Delhi, May 13 Prisons across the country are overcrowded, in some cases are overcrowded beyond 150 percent, the Supreme Court has expressed concern about this and asked all the high courts to consider the issue as it involves “violation of human rights”.
The apex court requested the chief justices of the high courts to take up the matter as a suo-motu (on its own) writ petition and referred to a note given by an advocate, assisting the court as an amicus curiae, in this regard.
“It appears from the note given by amicus curiae that the issue of overcrowding in prisons is not being taken seriously by the prison authorities. There are several prisons where the overcrowding is well beyond 100 per cent and in some cases it exceeds 150 per cent,” a bench of justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta said.
“In our opinion, this matter should be considered by each high court independently with the assistance of the State Legal Services Authority/High Court Legal Services Committee so that there is some sanity in the overcrowding in prisons since it involves violation of human rights,” it said.