KOLKATA: Calcutta HC on Friday allowed as many as 35 terminally ill prisoners to go home and spend their remaining days with family, but with a few riders. The order will be effective in a week.
The HC, observing that the concept of imprisonment is to deprive a person of his/ her liberty of free movement, said the police would ensure these prisoners — many of whom are terminal cancer and HIV+ patients — did not leave their homes apart from emergencies. Each of their families would also have to furnish a bond to the local administration that they would not let them step out.
In October last year, the Bengal government had informed the HC that medical officers had certified these prisoners as being terminally ill with little hope of recovery. “We are of the view that a prisoner suffering from a terminal illness should be treated with sympathy and permitted to breathe his last in the comforting company of his family and friends, if, and to the extent, possible,” observed the division bench of Chief Justice Thottathil B Radhakrishnan and Justice Arijit Banerjee.
“This is neither bail nor parole,” said advocate Indrajeet Dey. “The stay at home will be considered their imprisonment.” The Centre, in a 2010 advisory to states and Union Territories, had suggested that “isolated environment of a prison” only increases the trauma among prisoners staring at impending death. The Centre had, however, left it to the states to formulate their own laws on how best to address the issue.
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