The Bombay High Court today asked Maharashtra government to take corrective steps towards improving the condition of Yerwada central prison in Pune and providing better facilities to inmates lodged there.
A division bench of Justices V M Kanade and Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi was hearing a petition filed by one Shaikh Ibrahim Abdul, who is lodged in Yerwada central prison, raising the issue of poor condition of the jail.
The court had last week directed the Principal District judge of Pune to appoint a judicial officer to conduct inspection of Yerwada prison and submit a report.
Accordingly, a report was submitted today which said that while the food quality in the jail was fine there was space constraint.
As per the report, while the capacity of Yerwada jail was 2,323 there are over 6,000 inmates (convicts and undertrials) lodged there at present. There are over 125 women inmates and 16 children belonging to these inmates.
"There are 529 toilets in the men's barracks. There are no bathrooms and the male inmates take bath in the open. In the women's cell, there are 19 toilets and two bathrooms," the report said.
The court, after perusing the report, asked the government to take corrective steps towards improving the conditions.
The bench has now directed the Principal Judge of the sessions court in Mumbai to appoint a judicial officer to inspect Arthur Road central prison here and submit a report in four weeks.
