People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti has filed a petition before the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, seeking immediate directions for the transfer of all undertrial prisoners from the Union Territory (UT) who are currently lodged in different jails across the country.
The plea states that such prisoners should be brought back to local jails unless the authorities provide their case-specific, written reasons noting the necessity of keeping them lodged outside the UT.
“Mufti, being the petitioner and a political activist besides being the former chief minister of the UT, said a lot of family members of undertrials have been requesting her to take up this issue with the government through this petition,” the plea stated.
“She urged the government to return all undertrial prisoners lodged in jails outside J&K, but no action was initiated. Due to the inaction of the government, the petitioner has now filed a public interest litigation before the court,” the plea said.
“The petitioner under Article 226 of the Constitution of India humbly seeks immediate intervention of this court by writ of Mandamus seeking immediate repatriation and directing respondents, including the Union government, the J-K home department and DGP to transfer forthwith all under-trial prisoners belonging to J-K who are presently lodged in prisons outside the Union territory to jails within J-K, unless the jail authorities place before this court case-specific, written reasons demonstrating unavoidable, compelling necessity; in such exceptional cases, require quarterly judicial review,” the plea read.
After the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019, Mehbooba said thousands of people facing investigation or trial in J&K were lodged in prisons outside the UT.
“FIRs are registered and trials convened within J-K, yet incarceration occurs hundreds of kilometres away, defeating court access, family visits, and counsel conferences, and imposing crippling travel costs on indigent families,” she said in the plea.
The petition also seeks compensation for reasonable travel and lodging expenses for one family member per month to visit the undertrial in the out-of-state prison, confirmed by prison records and tickets, until the prisoner’s return to J&K is complete.
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