Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
Tapas Kumar Bhanja vs The State on 21 January, 2022
Author: Prakash Shrivastava
Bench: Prakash Shrivastava
10 to 14 ss/jks 21.01.2022 WPA 7252 of 2018 Court in its own motion In Re. : Overcrowding in prisons With WPA 26371 of 2017 In-human conditions in 1382 prisons With WPA 4510 of 1997 Tapas Kumar Bhanja Vs. The State With WPA 5440 of 2020 With CAN 1 of 2020 (Old CAN 3147 of 2020) Aparajita Bose Vs. State of West Bengal & Ors.
With WPA 8573 of 2018 The Hon'ble Court in its own motion Vs. State of West Bengal (Through video conference) Mr. Sabyasachi Chatterjee ... ... amicus curiae Mr. Joveria Sabbah ... ... for the petitioner in WPA 5440 of 2020 Mr. Saikat Banerjee ... ... for the High Court Administration Mr. S. N. Mookherjee, AG Mr. Anirban Ray, GP Mr. Raja Saha Mr. Debasish Ghosh Mr. Nilotpal Chatterjee ... ... for the State Mr. Pradip Kumar Roy Mr. Joydeep Roy ... ... for the PSC Mr. Raghunath Chakraborty ... ... for the intervenor Mr. Kaushik Gupta ... ... for the SLSA in WPA 26371 of 2017 Mr. Kallol Mondal ... ... for the SLSA in WPA 8573 of 2018 Learned Advocate General has referred to the report filed in compliance of the order dated 08.01.2021 2 and 10.11.2021 but this report is not in the form of affidavit nor does it contain any date.
It is also pointed out by the learned Advocate General that it is based upon the facts and figures which were available on 09.10.2020 in respect of 30 TIPs. In view of this, he seeks further time to carry out the fresh exercise in pursuance to the order dated 08.01.2021 in respect of release of TIPs and file a fresh report in the form of affidavit.
It will be open to the learned counsel for the petitioners and intervenor to submit the information they have collected through RTI in respect of TIPs before the amicus curiae and the learned amicus curiae will duly compile the same and forward it along with all the relevant papers to the learned Advocate General.
Learned amicus curiae has also stated that he is in the process of formulate the issues in terms of the earlier order and he will consider the submissions made today in respect of the issues relating to TIPs, overcrowding of the prisons, mental health problems faced by the prisoners, issues relating to non-functional bodies and filling up the posts in the prisons.
Let the fresh report in the form of affidavit be filed by the learned Advocate General on or before the next date of hearing.
Learned counsel for the intervenor has stated that in Malda, as against the capacity of 300, there are as many as 1100 prisoners.
3Learned Advocate General will look into this issue.
List on 7th March, 2022.
(Prakash Shrivastava, C.J.) (Rajarshi Bharadwaj, J.)