The Gauhati High Court on Thursday asked the state government to provide the best qualitative treatment to the jail inmates across the state so that no further damage is caused.
The High Court’s intervention comes following a PIL filed by senior advocate Nilay Dutta after a few hundred of prisoners tested positive for Covid-19 inside the jails across Assam.
The High Court bench comprising Chief Justice Ajay Lamba and Justice Manish Choudhury directed the Inspector General of Prisons to file an affidavit on the issue and listed the case for next hearing on September 8.
The Court order said: “We hereby direct that the best of the measures available with the state of Assam, be employed to give qualitative treatment to the jail inmates across the state so that no further damage is caused.”
“We also direct that the persons who have not been detected COVID-19 positive be segregated and be maintained as such so that the disease is not transmitted to them.
“In any case, all the jail inmates in Assam be tested for COVID-19. The result thereof be conveyed to the court,” said the court.
The HC said that in the affidavit of the IG Prison must be mentioned about how many Covid positive cases have been detected in each of the jails, precautions taken before the inmates were found to be coronavirus positive, the steps being taken for disinfecting the jails and giving treatment to inmates and how many patients are asymptomatic and symptomatic in each of the jails.