Madras High Court directs State to ensure undertrials can freely communicate with their lawyers

The Madras High Court has directed the Tamil Nadu Prison Department and the State police to ensure undertrial prisoners are permitted to meet and communicate freely with their lawyers..In an order passed on October 15, a Bench of Justices SM Subramaniam and VS Sivagnanam also directed the State to file a compliance report listing out steps taken to implement the Court’s earlier order.“...the facilities provided should be on par with the current day prevailing situation, enabling the legal practitioners to perform their duties peacefully and effectively to defend the case of the prisoners in the manner contemplated under Law. The respondents are directed to comply with the above directions as clarified by us in the aforementioned paragraphs and submit a compliance report before this Bench in form of an affidavit stating about the facilities already provided and the facilities proposed to be provided for the benefit of the legal practitioners and the undertrial prisoners. Facilities proposed to be provided must be provided in a time bound manner, which is to be stated in the compliance report,” the High Court said..The Court was hearing a petition filed by Advocate P Ananda Kumar highlighting a practice in the Chennai Central Prison, where the authorities were not allowing lawyers to directly meet their clients.The authorities had introduced a system as per which an undertrial inmate and their lawyer could only talk to each other from across a barricade, Kumar said. He also told the Court that such barricade was aligned in a manner where the lawyer was forced to uncomfortably stoop down to be able to talk to their clients..The State government told the Court that such barricade system had been withdrawn by the prison authorities following a meeting between the High Court and their representatives on July 25 last year. However, counsel for the petitioner as well as the Madras High Court Advocates Association (MHAA) Secretary, Advocate R Krishna Kumar disputed the State’s claim. They said they had both personally encountered the barricade problem."Thus, we direct the 1st respondent to ensure that the facilities as contemplated under the Prison Manual must be provided effectively to the legal practitioners and the undertrial prisoners enabling them to get legal assistance, which is a basic right enunciated under the Constitution of India. Such a facility must be ensured in all prisons across the State of Tamil Nadu," the Court said.The Court then noted that the Tamil Nadu Prison Rules permitted interaction and interviews between “unconvicted prisoners and their legal advisers within the sight but out of hearing of a prison official.”It, therefore, directed the State prison authorities to ensure that the Rules were followed and that lawyers were permitted to comfortably interact with their clients in prisons..“The purpose and object of the Rules is to ensure that the harassment, ill-treatment, if any caused to the undertrial prisoners inside the prison, it is to be communicated to the legal adviser for the purpose of initiation of appropriate actions. It is a valuable right conferred to the undertrial prisoners, which cannot be taken away or diluted by the Prison Authorities at any circumstances. In the event of not protecting the rights of the undertrial prisoners inside the prison, there is a possibility of abuse of powers by the prison authorities, which is commonly made before the Courts in many number of cases,” the High Court said.It added that legal practitioners must be treated with dignity by prison officials and vice-versa..Advocate S Kasirajan appeared for the petitioner.Additional Public Prosecutor E Raj Thilak appeared for the respondent prison authorities.Advocate CK Chandrasekar appeared for the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and Advocate R Krishna Kumar represented the MHAA..[Read Order]