TADA court gesture to detenus

MUMBAI, DEC. 25. In a humanitarian gesture, a TADA court has allowed the serial blast accused, lodged in the central prison here, to have the customary ``sheer kurma'' (sweet dish) on Id later this week.

This is for the first time that such a facility is being extended to prisoners.

On a plea by the Defence lawyer, Ms. Farhana Shah and Mr. Subhash Kanse, the designated judge, Mr. P. D. Kode, summoned the jailer to court and asked him to submit his say on allowing such a facility on December 27.

The jailer informed the court that ``sheer kurma'' could be made available in the prison canteen on payment or allowed in jail through the relatives of inmates subject to security checks.

The CBI prosecutor, Mr. A. S. Kulaye, granted no objection to such facility being allowed.

Accordingly, the court has directed the jailer to allow the relatives of the accused to bring ``sheer kurma'' on Id day subject to security checks. The judge also ruled that ``sheer kurma'' should be served to the accused in reasonable quantity and not in the form of food.

In a related development, the serial blast accused have challenged the recent amendment to the Prisoners Act which took away their right to have home food. The Mumbai High Court will hear this petition on January 21.

The amended sections of Prisoners Act deny undertrials all over Maharashtra their right to have home food. The petitioners urged that the recent amendment was against the basic principles of criminal jurisprudence and violative of Articles 14 and 21 which deal with fundamental rights laid down by the constitution.

It was arbitrary and prejudicial to divide prisoners into satyagrahis and non-satyagrahis and deny food of their choice to non- satyagrahis. Such a provision would have dis-entitled people like Subhash Chandra Bose and Shahid Bhagat Singh to food from home or private sources, the petitioners submitted.

They urged the court to declare the amended articles ultra vires of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution. They also sought the court's direction to restrain the State government from implementing the impugned sections.

- PTI

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