Context
The Uttarakhand government recently issued a notification to post IPS officers as superintendents of Sittarganj, Haldwani, Haridwar, Dehradun and Roorkee prisons. This has raised questions of propriety both in legal and governance terms.
In news
A PIL has been filed against the government’s decision before the Uttarakhand High Court
Background
- The decision to appoint police officers as heads of the prison department, a practice that goes against the philosophy of correctional administration, was started in the 1980s, on grounds of strengthening security and to control corruption.
- Earlier, prison departments were headed by prison officers or IAS officers.
- Bihar is the only state which continues to have an IAS officer heading the prison department as Inspector General of Prisons and Correctional Services.
Prison ReformVarious prison reform committee reports like the Justice Mulla Committee on Prison Reforms Report (1983) and the Justice Krishna Iyer Committee on Women Prisoners Report (1987) have advocated that prisons should be houses of reformation and rehabilitation of prisoners and their families, and have recommended the creation of a specialised All India Prison Service along the lines of the IPS or IAS.
Significance of appointing Police as jailer
- Appointing police officers in prisons either as superintendents or as jailers amounts to a violation of the principle of separation of powers enshrined in our Constitution.
- The meaning of judicial custody is that the police investigation is over and the accused is now taken out of police custody and handed over to the prison custody under the supervision of the judiciary.
- In fact, a police officer is not allowed to enter a prison without a court order, unless a crime takes place inside and the prison authorities report the matter to the police.
Issue
- The logic for these appointments is the same as that used to appoint police officers as heads of the prison departments.
- But an added rationale is that prison departments have limited strength at the officer level, leading to malpractices.
Solution
- The suggested solution is to bring fresh talent from outside, who would not have any long-term stake in the system.
- The absence of a sufficiently large pool of officers to choose from is used as a ground to bring police officers into the system.
Source: Indian Express
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