Delhi HC Issues Notice to Delhi Government in a Plea Seeking Protection of Right to Access to Justice’ of Undertrials

In a Writ Petition filed before the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi seeking protection of the right to access to justice’ of undertrials and convicts, the Division Bench comprising of Hon’ble Chief Justice D.N. Patel & Hon’ble Justice Jyoti Singh was pleased to issue Notice to the Government of NCT of Delhi and the Director-General of Prisons, Tihar Central Jail. The Writ Petition was filed on behalf of Adv. Jai Anant Dehadrai & Adv. Sidharth Arora, criminal lawyers based out of New Delhi challenging Rule 585 of the Delhi Prison Rules, 2018 on the ground that the same is ultra vires the Constitution of India and violative of Articles 14 & 21 of the Constitution of India as the impugned rule wrongfully limits the frequency of visitations of the family members, friends and legal advisors to only two times in a week.

The Writ Petition has been filed in public interest on behalf of undertrials and convicts as the impugned rule curtails their right to adequate meetings with their lawyers which further leads to delay in preparing their case which acts as an impediment to access to justice.

The Petitioners have placed reliance on the Tihar Prison Profile statistics, according to which, the occupancy rate at Tihar Central Jail is a staggering 175% which indicates the massive overcrowding of undertrials which account for 82.02% of the total jail population and a major proportion of the same is due to the hindrance and arbitrary cap on the frequency of visits available to the legal advisors to prepare their defence or move Applications for bail.    

The Petitioners through this Petition have prayed for issuance of a writ of mandamus against the State Government to declare the impugned rule to be ultra vires the Constitution of India and have sought revised guidelines increasing the frequency of visits available to legal advisors. The Petitioners have proposed that legal visitation be made available from Monday to Friday i.e. five days a week for alloted time slots as opposed to twice a week under the prevailing rules.

The Petition has been filed by the Petitioners through Adv. Harshit Goel and the same has been scheduled to be listed next on 16.04.2021.