Prisoners hold fundamental rights to hygiene and sanitation, requiring state reforms for adequate treatment and facilities in line with modern legal standards.

ORDER :

ANOOP KUMAR DHAND, J.

It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.

Nelson Mandela

Prisons are built with stones of law, but their spirit must be that of humanity.

Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer

The notion that prisoners are also human beings, entitled to a life of dignity is a cornerstone of modern Indian Constitution Laws, even 79 years after independence from the colonial-era. Prisons Act, 1894 focused primarily as punitive and inhumanly, the post independence legal framework has transitioned and towards a reformative and rehabilitative approach.

The modern justice system aims at reforming the inmates by not just punishing them but aiming to restore their self-respect and prepare them for reintegration into the society at large. The Indian law prohibits practices that dehumanize the prisoners. Prisoners are entitled to adequate food, clean drinking and washing water and medical care.

Model Prisons and Correctional Services Act, 2023 has been enacted to address these issues. The Ministry of Home Affairs has introduced this Act to encourage the State Legal Remembrancer, focusing on rehabilitation, legal aid and better inmate treatment inside the Jails.

India follows United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the treatment of Prisoners (Nelson Mandela Rules, 2015), which emphasises that all inmates (prisoners) must be treated with the respect due to their inherent dignity.

While the legal and constitutional powers in India strongly guarantees a dignified life for prisoners, the practical application faces significant systematic changes. Continued efforts in prisoners reforms, such as the 2023 Model Act, aim to bridge the gap between legal provisions and governing legal statutes.

“Whether inspite of having so many reforms for the prisoners still they are facing great difficulties, while remaining in Jails, for example not getting proper drinking and washing water and facing several practical difficulties, which have not been determined by the authorities concerned.”

This issue is required to be adjudicated in this petition.

1. The instant writ petition has been filed by the petitioner with the following prayer:-

“It is, therefore, prayed that your lordships may very graciously be pleased to admit and allow this writ petition and the respondents may kindly be directed to provide entire things which are using by the prisoners in daily use and directed to change the Rule -120 of Rules- 1951, in which the quantity of washing soda ¾ oz. to a male prisoner and 1.1/2 oz. for a female prisoner, which is very less quantity and the proper supply of drinking water and water for washing the clothes etc.

Any other order which this Hon’ble Court deemed just and proper in the facts and circumstances of the case may also be passed in favour of the petitioner.”

2. By way of filing this writ petition, a prayer has been made for issuing appropriate directions to the State authorities to provide washing soda (detergent) to the male and female prisoners and to provide proper drinking water and water for washing clothes for the inmates, under trial prisoners and convict prisoners in the various District and Central Jails in the State of Rajasthan.

3. It is averred in the petition that as per Rule 52 of the Rajasthan Prison Rules, 1951 (for short “the Rules of 1951”), there will be bathing arrangements for prisoners in proper manner and as per Rule 114 of the Rules of 1951, the prisoners shall wash their clothes once in a week and the jail authoritie