Calcutta HC allows home imprisonment for terminally ill – Times of India

KOLKATA: Calcutta High Court on Friday allowed around 35 terminally ill prisoners to go home and spend their remaining days with family, but with a few checks.
The court, observing that the concept of imprisonment is to deprive a person of his/her liberty of free movement, said the police would ensure these prisoners — many of whom are terminal cancer and HIV+ patients — did not leave their homes, apart from emergencies. Each of their families would also have to furnish a bond to the local administration that they would not let them step out.
In October last year, the Bengal government had informed the high court that medical officers had certified these prisoners as being terminally ill, with little hope of recovery.
“We are of the view that a prisoner suffering from terminal illness should be treated with sympathy and should be permitted to breathe his last in the comforting company of his family and friends, if, and to the extent, possible,” observed the division bench of Chief Justice Thottathil B Radhakrishnan and Justice Arijit Banerjee.
“The whole idea of imprisoning a person is to deprive him of the liberty to move freely,” the bench observed, adding, “For this purpose, in an appropriate case, the government may shift a terminally ill prisoner to his home with a direction that he will be kept confined there…. That way, the prisoner will receive the love and affection from his near and dear ones and end his earthly mission with relatively more peace in mind…. It is now well accepted all over the world that even prisoners are entitled to be treated in a humane manner.”
The order will be effective in a week. “This is neither bail nor parole,” said advocate Indrajeet Dey. “The stay at home will be considered their imprisonment.”
‘If deserted, state must assume role of caretaker’
The Centre, in a 2010 advisory to states and Union Territories, had suggested that “isolated environment of a prison” only increases the trauma among prisoners staring at impending death. The Centre had, however, left it to the states to formulate their own laws on how best to address the issue, but suggested such patients could be moved to open-air prisons, allowed more family visits and even shifted to specially made medical centres. The Bengal Prison Code allows the prison superintendent to approach courts to allow terminally ill prisoners, who have no hope of recovery, based on medical advice, “the comfort of dying a free man at home”. But this requires amnesty by the state, or the courts to condone the remaining sentences.
The HC also factored in state advocate-general Kishore Dutta’s argument that in some cases the families of terminally ill prisoners may not be in a financial position, or for other reasons, may not be able to accommodate them at home. The bench thought this was a “relevant and reasonable” point and said, in such cases, the state would continue to bear their medical expenses in correctional homes, and, if required, may consider shifting them to hospitals or medical centres.
“If a terminally ill prisoner has been deserted by his family and friends, the government of our state, which professes to be a welfare state, must rise to the occasion and assume the role of the caretaker of that person,” the bench ruled.