Supreme Court Plea Seeks Release of 802 Persons Held in Assam Detention Centres amid COVID-19 Outbreak

New Delhi, April 1, 2020:

In the midst of the worst crisis that the world has known since the World War 2, a plea in Supreme Court of India has sought the release of persons from the foreigners detention camps in Assam, highlighting the unhygienic conditions in the centres housed within 6 jails in the state.

An application has been filed by an Assam based Public Charitable Trust 'Justice and Liberty Initiative', seeking intervention in the matter where Suo Motu cognizance was taken by the Apex Court in an attempt to decongest jails by asking authorities to consider releasing specific categories of prisoners on interim bail in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.

After the Supreme Court directive to release prisoners from jails, the applicant is seeking similar relief measures of the 802 who have been declared as 'foreigner' by tribunals.

It may be recalled that the Minister of State for Home Affairs had stated in the Rajya Sabha on March 11 that there are 802 persons in the detention camps in the State. According to official figures, 29 detainees have died in the camps due to different ailments.

The application has highlighted that on May 10, 2019, the apex Court had passed an order allowing the release of all detenus who have spent more than 3 years in detention, subject to execution of bonds.

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Bringing the peril to the lives of the detenus to the notice of the court, the applicant wrote, "These camps are like ticking 'time bombs' ready to explode any time. In absence of any quarantine facility inside those camps, detenues are at great risk in the event of its outbreak."

"It creates the ideal environment for the transmission of contagious disease. Social distancing is clearly not possible in such environment", the application further added, calling attention to the "deplorable" condition in the camps, adding that single toilets are shared by many.

This appeal has been made against the backdrop of the Supreme Court directive to form high powered committees at the state and union territory level in order to release prisoners to "decongest" the jail premises.

The Supreme Court had directed that each State/Union Territory shall constitute a High Powered Committee comprising of Chairman of the State Legal Services Committee, the Principal Secretary (Home/Prison) by whatever designation is known as, Director General of Prison(s), to determine which class of prisoners can be released on parole or an interim bail for such period as may be thought appropriate.

"For instance, the State/Union Territory could consider the release of prisoners who have been convicted or are undertrial for offences for which prescribed punishment is up to 7 years or less, with or without fine and the prisoner has been convicted for a lesser number of years than the maximum", the apex Court had said.

Now, stating the the condition in the jails is "deplorable" as each person has "only 2-3 square feet space", the application says "it would only be fair and just that this Hon'ble

Court in its magnanimity directs the release of such detenues by dispensing with the condition of financial surety,minimum period of detention etc., as may be expedient and necessary in the peculiar facts of the case due to the spread of the contagious and deadly

COVID 19."

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