Vaccinate all prisoners: Orissa HC tells Naveen Patnaik government

CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court on Tuesday directed the State government to ensure that Covid-19 vaccination is not denied to any prisoner who does not have required documents for registration.

The Court issued the direction after hearing two PILs on issues touching upon human rights of inmates of prisons in the State including circle jails, district jails, special jails, special sub-jails, open air jails, sub-jails and jails for women. Amicus Curiae Gautam Mishra pointed out that many prison inmates may not have identity documents for registering on the COWIN portal.

Responding to it, a division bench comprising Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice BP Routray said, “Accordingly, it is directed that the State government will make appropriate arrangements to ensure that no prison inmate is denied vaccination only on the ground that the inmate is unable to get registered on the COWIN portal. Alternate arrangements should be made to ensure that vaccination is not denied to such inmate”.

The court further directed the Member Secretary of Odisha State Legal Services Authority (OSLSA) to coordinate with the State government and take steps on the issue of commutation and remission of the sentences of prisoners found eligible for the benefit, in a time-bound manner.

Earlier the court had asked the Member Secretary of OSLSA to extend assistance to as many prisoners as possible who are unable to avail bail despite being granted one by the respective courts. The court had been informed that there are as many as 470 such prisoners across the State.