The Bombay High Court on Friday has stated that undertrial prisoners should be produced before courts through video-conferencing whenever permissible, as bringing them physically to courts for every hearing was a cumbersome procedure.
A single bench of Bharati Dangre directed the Maharashtra government to make necessary funds available to ensure that every court is provided by screens and other video-conferencing facilities.
The court order dated November 10 that was made available on Friday.
The issue was raised in a bail plea filed by one Tribhuvansing Yadav, who claimed that his application for bail in the lower court was adjourned on 23 occasions, as he was not produced before the court physically or through video-conferencing.
The bench noted, as per a report submitted by the inspector of prisons and correctional services in September, 39 prisons in Maharashtra have 329 sanctioned video-conferencing units, of which 291 were functional.
The court, in its order, stated that if the facility is made available to all courts in the state, it may not be necessary to produce the accused persons at several stages of proceedings.
The high court stated, “This (producing prisoners physically) is a cumbersome procedure, which consumes time, money and resources.”
It stated, inmates should be produced through video-conferencing for reasons such as security concerns, non-availability of police personnel to accompany them to courts and so on.
The court noted that to make the facility more effective, screens would be needed in all courts.
The bench stated, “It is necessary that every person incarcerated and housed in a prison as an undertrial prisoner must on the allotted date be produced before the court either physically or through video-conferencing,” adding that the court should also ensure that a video-conferencing link is made available to the prison authorities in advance.
It said, it would be better if each court had a designated link so that the procedure is streamlined and the prison authorities are not searching for links at the 11th hour.
It held, “It is necessary that every court shall have a dedicated link. If dedicated links are allotted and time slots are scheduled, then production of the accused person before the court can be a simple procedure instead of taking the prisoner physically to court.”
The bench directed the state government for providing funds for the same.
Therefore, the court also directed all courts to ensure that dates are allotted for each case and intimated to the concerned prison authorities through the police station in-charges so that every undertrial prisoner is produced before the court through video-conferencing or physically.
Earlier, the bench appointed advocate Satyavrat Joshi to assist the court on the issue and directed him to visit the Arthur Road Jail and Taloja prison and submit a report.
In his report, Joshi stated that there are 16 units for video-conferencing at Arthur Road Jail, while in Taloja there are 19.
However, in both prisons, inmates claim that they aren’t produced before courts through video-conferencing, and sometimes they aren’t taken physically.
Also, the report claimed that there was poor network connectivity and a lack of technicians to help out with video-conferencing.
The bench directed that the report be forwarded to the state home department for necessary steps to make the facility more effective. The court will hear the matter further on December 4.
