Prisoners do not lose their fundamental rights under Article 21 of the Constitution and must be treated with dignity, as established by the Supreme Court.

( 1 ) HEARD counsel for the petitioners.

( 2 ) THIS case furnishes a typical instance of what is happening in the jails in this country. The F. I. R. which has been challenged in this writ petition reads as follows :-

( 3 ) A perusal of the F. I. R. shows that the son of the first informant Chandra Prakash was in jail. On 28-5-2000 two police people came to the first informant and told her that her son had died in jail. On visiting the mortuary it was found that blood was coming out of the nose and ear of the corpse of Chandra Prakash. There were several signs of injuries on his head. There were also injuries on one eye, and both hands and ribs of Chandra Prakash were full of blood. It appears that Chandra Prakash has been mercilessly beaten in jail and that was cause of his death. This incident happened in District Jail, Bareilly, copy of the post mortem report which is annexed as Annexure 3 to this writ petition corroborates the version in the F. I. R. that Chandra Prakash has been mercilessly beaten in prison and the cause of death given in the post mortem report was coma and asphyxia as a result of ante mortem injuries.

( 4 ) THE Supreme Court in the case of Sunil Batra v. Delhi Administration, AIR 1978 SC 1675 has held that a person in jail does not lose his fundamental rights under Article 21 of the Constitution which requires a person to be treated with dignity. It seems that most of our jails in our country are jungles where the security people often behave like animals in mal-treating the prisoners instead of following the decision of the Supreme Court. The present case is a typical illustration what has been happening in jails in this country, particularly in Uttar Pradesh. In this view of the matter we are not inclined to interfere in the matter. A personal of the F. I. R. shows that a prima facie case is made out, and hence we are not inclined to stay the proceedings and investigation of the case. However, the observations made in this judgment will not influence the Court concerned in deciding with the bail application of the petitioners or the trial.

( 5 ) LET a copy of this order be sent to the Director General of Jails. Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow who will circulate it to all Jail Authorities in the State with a severe warning that if any, such further instance comes to the knowledge of the Court the persons responsible will be taken to severe task.

( 6 ) WITH these observations the writ petition is dismissed. Petition dismissed.

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