Plea on ailing inmates’ plight

Cuttack, March 27: Human rights activist Prabir Kumar Das has moved Orissa High Court to put an end to the practice of shackling ailing prisoners to hospital beds during treatment.
Das, a practising advocate of the high court Bar, has written a letter to Chief Justice citing example of the “abominable practice”, especially in cases of Pravat Mallick and Rabi Das, prisoners who were undergoing treatment for diarrhoea at Puri district hospital.
Even women, the letter added, are not spared of the iron shackles that cause chafing. Prisoners have to seek permission to use the lavatory, the lawyer said, mentioning the case of Sanjulata Sahu, who was kept chained and manacled to bed rails while under treatment at the hospital for a similar stomach disorder.
“It is a matter of grave concern that this practice has become routine and regular in Orissa, even as it violates human rights guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution,” the letter stated, seeking judicial intervention in the matter.
Converting it into a PIL today, the two-judge bench of Chief Justice A.K. Ganguly and Justice B.N. Mohapatra directed the government to take notice of the letter and reply within three weeks.
“I was moved to seek judicial intervention after reading media report with photographs of prisoners placed in general wards of a hospital, but chained to their beds in April 2007,” said Advocate P.K. Das, talking to The Telegraph.
“The practice insults human decency and serves no purpose. There can be no excuse for continuing with the practice as it’s superfluous, since prisoners in hospitals are guarded round the clock anyway.”
The PIL assumes significance as it makes it clearer, the need to expand hospital facilities for prisoners.
The Telegraph; OUR CORRESPONDENT