Mumbai: In order to facilitate the inmates to communicate with their families, friends, and lawyers, the Bombay high court (HC) asked the state prison authorities on Friday to clarify their stand on the telephone calling facility available for undertrials and convicts as per prison rules.
The court sought clarification while hearing the application of Elgar Parishad accused Gautam Navlakha, who complained that he was not allowed to speak to his wife, who is in Delhi over the phone since the December 2021 notice of the state government, disallowing video calling facility that had been provided to prison inmates during the lockdown period.
The bench has asked the prison authorities to respond and state whether Navlakha can be extended the telephone calling facility and posted the hearing of the application to Tuesday.
The division bench of justice Nitin Jamdar and justice NR Borkar, while hearing the application of Navlakha was informed by advocate Yug Chaudhari that the denial of a telephone call to his client was against his rights. “This is very harsh and unfair. During the lockdown for two years, the video calling facility was available without any problem, however now he has been refused the facility,” said Chaudhari.
He further argued that Navlakha was 70 years old, and his wife was also of the same age and was living in Delhi and it was not possible for her to come to Mumbai for physical mulakats. “Video calling or telephone calls will cost nothing. Other prisons in the country still allow phone calls then why have the Maharashtra prisons stopped it?” argued Chaudhari.
Additional public prosecutor Sangeeta Shinde informed the bench that a coin box telephone facility was available for prison inmates which include twice-a-week phone calls for undertrials and convicts, but the same could not be extended to persons booked under the Unlawful Activities Prevention (UAP) Act.
Shinde also informed the bench that the state had filed a reply to the public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the December 2021 notification of the government which discontinued the video calling facility to both undertrials and convicts.
Thereafter, when the court sought clarification on what the prison rules said about the telephone calling facility for inmates and specifically for Navlakha, Shinde sought time to respond which the bench allowed and directed the state prison authorities to respond by Tuesday.