66 prison deaths remain unresolved

The issue shot into limelight after a public interest litigation, moved by Kesavan of Anna Nagar, had stated that as many as 1,095 unnatural deaths had taken place in Tamil Nadu prisons from 2000 till February 2013. He had sought for a judicial inquiry preferably by a district judge. But after severe prodding and strictures passed by the first bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice R Mahadevan, the government finally came out with an affidavit stating that out of the 264 deaths in jails in Tamil Nadu, compensation was given only in three cases and disciplinary action was taken against two prison staff. 

The report also claimed that the District Collectors were finding it difficult to obtain the inquiry reports from the judicial magistrates concerned, and that was behind the delay in obtaining the final orders on the reports of the death of prisoners. After the first bench slammed the State for its callous attitude in dealing with prisoners’ death, the inquiry reports which was pending in 127 had come down to 99 in June and subsequently to 66 as on September 21.  When the case came up for hearing on Friday, the government pleader had sought for two more months to obtain death reports in 66 cases. Following this, the bench posted the case to December 9, after directing the member secretary, Tamil Nadu State Legal Services Authority, to submit a report after verifying that complete compliance has taken place.