ORDER :- There are some people who are critical of the practice adopted by this Court of taking judicial action on letters addressed by public spirited individuals and organisations for enforcement of the basic human rights of the weaker sections of the community. This criticism is based on a highly elitist approach and proceeds from a blind obsession with the rites and rituals sanctified by an outmoded Anglo-Saxon Jurisprudence. The most complete refutation of this criticism is provided by the action taken by the Court in this case. It was a letter. dated 15th Jan., 1982 addressed by the Free Legal Aid Committee, Hazaribagh to one of us (Bhagwati, J.) which set the judicial process in motion and but for this letter which drew the attention of the Court to the atrociously illegal detention of certain prisoners in the Hazaribagh Central Jail for almost two or three decades without any justification whatsoever, these forgotten specimens of humanity languishing in jail for years behind stone walls and iron bars, deprived of freedom and liberty which are the inalienable rights of a human being, would have continued to remain in jail without any hope of ever walking out of its forbidding environment and breathing the fresh air of freedom. These prisoners were lost in the oblivion of time and had become merely ticket numbers in the Hazaribagh Central Jail. All that they could do was to cry in despair. "How long", with their cry unheeded and unanswered. The letter of the Free Legal Aid Committee, Hazaribagh brought the plight of these Prisoners to the notice of the Court and treating this letter as a writ petition, the Court issued notice to the State of Bihar for the purpose of ascertaining the facts in regard to these prisoners. We are happy to note that the State of Bihar has responded to the notice of the Court and filed a counter-affidavit frankly and unreservedly giving detailed particulars in regard to 16 prisoners in Hazaribagh Central Jail who were insane or of unsound mind at the date when they were received in the jail and who, barring two out of them, are still rotting in jail. The learned counsel appearing on behalf of the Free Legal Aid Committee, Hazaribagh has Prepared a list summarising the particulars in regard to these prisoners as furnished by the State of Bihar and we shall take up the cases of these prisoners in the order in which they are set out in this list.

2. We may Point out straightway that so far as Sadal Chamar, Khedu Bhattacharya, Mohamadin, Kali Singh, Ambika Lal and Jagannath Mahto being prisoners at Sl. Nos. 1, 7, 10, 11, 13 and 15 in the list are concerned, the records show that they were last examined by Dr. A. K. Prasad, Psychiatric Specialist of Mansik Arogyashala, Kanke on 24th Jan., 1982 in the Jail Hospital and were found still to be of unsound mind. We cannot in the circumstances order their release, because having regard to the mental condition of these prisoners, it would not be in the interest of the society as also in their own interest to set them free. It does not appear from the record as to whether there is anyone prepared to take care of them and hence it would not be desirable to release them, because if released in the present condition, they would not be able to secure proper medical treatment and would not even be able to look after themselves. It is indeed unfortunate that most of. these prisoners have been in jail for over 25 years and it is a matter of shame for the society that these prisoners have had to be detained in jail because there are not adequate institutions for treatment of the mentally sick. We are told that there is only one institution in the State of Bihar for treatment of lunatics and persons of unsound mind and that is the Mansik Arogayashala, Kanke and it is already over-crowded and there is no room for admitting these prisoners. We have had occasions to see lunatic asylums in one or two States and we find that the conditions in these lunatic asylums are who