The judgment establishes the principle that the rights of prisoners, including the legality of their confinement and denial of facilities, are protected under Article 21 of the Constitution, and the prison administration's actions must be balanced with the prisoners' fundamental rights.

JUDGMENT

1. "A society that believes in the worth of individual beings can have the quality of its belief judged, at least in part, by the quality of its prison and probation services and of the resources made available to them". This passage has been extracted from a White Paper entitled "People in Prison" published by the British Government in November, 1969.

2. Many years earlier, precisely on 25.07.1910, Sir Winston Churchill speaking as Home Secretary, said in the House of Commons:

"The mood and temper of the public in regard to the treatment of crime and criminals is one of the most unfailing tests of the civilization of any country. A calm dispassionate recognition of the rights of the accused, and even of the convicted criminal, against the State - a constant heart-searching by all charged with the duty of punishment - a desire and eagerness to rehabilitate in the world of industry those who have paid their due in the hard coinage of punishment; tireless efforts towards the discovery of curative and regenerative processes; unfailing faith that there is a treasure, if you can only find it, in the heart of every man. These are the symbols, which, in the treatment of crime and criminal, mark and measure the stored-up strength of a nation, and are sign and proof of the living virtue in it."

3. The same sentiment was echoed by Krishna Iyer, J. in Sunil Batra (II) vs. Delhi Administration, 1980 (3) SCC 488 (hereinafter referred to as Sunil Batra (II)). After extracting the above passage from the speech of Sir Winston Churchill, it was remarked;

"Truly, this is a perspective-setter and this is also the import of the Preamble and Article 21 as we will presently see. We are satisfied that protection of the prisoner within his rights is part of the office of Article 32."

4. More than four decades have elapsed since then, yet, the true import of the directions of the Supreme Court of India do not seem to have percolated to the Administrators of Prisons, as is highlighted by the facts of this bunch of cases.

5. This judgment shall decide CWP Nos.7882, 7226, 6930, 6931, 6933, 7368 and 9126 of 2021 as common questions of law arise for decision therein. The facts are also similar, however, for the purposes of precision, the same are being extracted from CWP No.7226 of 2021 titled as 'Chandan @ Chandu vs. State of Punjab &others.

6. A report was also called for from the Secretary, District Legal Services Authority, Bathinda in this case, which shall be referred to later and this is another reason for extracting the detailed facts from this case.

7. Before I proceed with the facts, I deem it relevant to notice that each of the petitioners in this bunch of cases, appears to be a professional criminal, as large number of cases have been registered against them, the least being 12 in number against Baljinder Singh (a) Billa (petitioner in CWP No.7368 of 2021) and the maximum being 37 against Gurpreet Singh Sekhon (petitioner in CWP No. 6933 of 2021. Four of them are convicted persons, while the remaining three are undertrials, although all of them claim to be under trials in their respective writ petitions.

8. It has been averred that the petitioner is perceived as a person with criminal antecedents but in fact, he has been falsely implicated. He is stated to be an undertrial and on account of his criminal antecedents, has been labeled as a gangster. Earlier, he had approached this Court through CRM-M- 13270 of 2016 for grant of protection while being produced in Court as he apprehended threat to his life from rival gangs. The said petition was decided vide order dated 02.09.2016 and certain directions were issued in his favour. He was transferred from High Security Jail, Nabha to Central Jail, Bathinda as it was the intent of the State to collect all alleged gangsters in the said prison and eliminate them systematically. This intent has been deciphered from public statements made by the Jails Minister and the Chief Minister, Punjab. Thus, the pet