Comments of NHRC on a Draft Model Prison Manual and on the Draft Manual on Identification, Relief and Rehabilitation of Bonded Labour

i) Draft Model Prison Manual:



The Supreme Court of India in Ramamurthy v/s State of Karnataka brought to the fore the urgent need to bring about uniformity in the laws relating to prisons and directed the Central and State Governments to formulate a new Model Prison Manual.

The National Human Rights Commission had, in 1996, circulated “An Outline of the Indian Prison Bill -1996” among all the States/Union Territories with this purpose in mind. The document had covered all the relevant issues governing the management and administration of prisons, particular emphasis being given to matters having a bearing on the human rights of prisoners.

Following the directions of the Supreme Court, a Prison Manual Committee was set up at the national level under the Chairmanship of Shri L.C. Amarnathan, Director General, Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D). The Committee prepared a Draft Model Prison Manual which was, thereafter, sent to this Commission in January 2003 for its comments.

The Commission was glad to note that almost all the directions/suggestions contained in the Commission’s document of 1996 had been accommodated in the Draft Manual.

The Commission has given its comments on a number of issues contained in the Draft Manual including, inter-alia, the institutional framework, organization of headquarters, institutional personnel, custodial management, maintenance of prisoners, medial care, contacts with the outside world, transfer of prisoners belonging to other states, leave and special leave of prisoners, premature release of prisoners, undertrial prisoners, women prisoners and staff development.

While the Commission had been asked to give its comments on the Draft of the Model Manual, progress in respect of the preparation of the Prisons Act was not communicated to the Commission. As the Manual would derive its existence from the Prisons Act, the Commission felt that it would be desirable, first, to enact a Prisons Bill that would be in tune with modern criminological and penological thinking. To this end, the Commission observed that the enactment of a new Prisons Act, as was recommended by the Mulla Committee on Jail Reforms in the early 80’s, is a necessity.

In the Draft Manual, the Rights and Duties of prisoners have been mentioned outside the format of the Manual in a separate chapter. It is a faithful reproduction of the recommendations made by the All India Committee on Jail Reforms 1980-83. However, this would have legal force only if the Prisons Act of 1894 is replaced by new legislation, which must make specific mention of the Rights and Duties of Prisoners.

The comments of the Commission were forwarded to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India on 11 February 2003.



ii) Draft Manual on Identification, Relief and Rehabilitation of Bonded Labourers:

The Ministry of Labour, Government of India has prepared a Draft Manual on the Identification, Relief and Rehabilitation of Bonded Labourers and forwarded it for comments of the NHRC.

The NHRC had the Manual and examined by experts in this field and, based on their views, made a number of observations and suggestions for amendments to the Draft Manual. These will be sent to the Ministry of Labour.