Delhi HC asks judicial officer to visit detention centre to check living conditions
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has directed a judicial officer to visit a detention centre here, which is alleged to be in a pathetic condition with no medical facilities and detainees are not being permitted to communicate with their families.
The court's direction came while hearing a plea by an Indian woman, whose husband, alleged to be a Pakistani national is kept in a detention centre here after completing his jail sentence.
She alleged that no legal aid is provided to the detainees and the premises lack cleanliness and hygiene.
A bench of Justices J R Midha and Brijesh Sethi directed the Principal District and Sessions Judge (HQ) to depute a judicial officer to visit the detention centre, Sewa Sadan Deportation Centre Lampur Village in Delhi, and inspect it with respect to the conditions prevailing there.
If the concerned judicial officer finds any shortcomings in the detention centre, immediate steps shall be taken by the concerned authorities to remove the shortcomings within a specified time and the judicial officer shall again visit the detention centre to verify whether the shortcomings have been removed or not, the bench said and added that the report is filed before the court in a sealed cover before the next date of hearing on December 16.
The court also permitted the woman's counsel to submit a short note with respect to her grievances to the concerned judicial officer.
Ruma Bibi has filed a habeas corpus petition seeking the release of her husband Asif Hossain from the centre.
Advocates Ajay Verma and Mehak Nakra, representing the woman, submitted that the petitioner's husband has been detained in the detention centre where the condition is very pathetic for want of cleanliness and hygiene and no medical facilities are being provided there.
The council claimed that the detainees are not permitted to communicate with the family and their counsel and no legal aid is provided to them and urged the court to direct a judicial officer to visit the detention centre and inspect it.
The woman, in her plea, said she along with her husband and two children used to live at Kolkata and in 2012, Hossain was arrested from the New Delhi Railway Station under the Official Secrets Act and the Foreigner's Act.
He was convicted and sentenced by the trial court for nine years and after completion of sentence, he was released from jail in April this year and sent to Sewa Sadan Deportation Centre in Narela for the purpose of deportation.
The plea said that a representation was filed to the concerned authorities for his release as he has been detained illegally in the deportation centre, but the concerned authorities paid no heed to it.
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Manipur: Mortal remains of children killed in bomb attack handed over to family
Imphal (PTI): The mortal remains of two children, who were killed in a bomb attack in Manipur's Bishnupur district in April, were handed over to family members on Saturday, officials said.
The bodies of the five-year-old boy and his six-month-old sister were kept in the morgue for 25 days, as the family members had refused to accept the mortal remains, demanding that the perpetrators be brought to book at the earliest.
On April 25, Chief Minister Y Khemchand Singh had appealed to the family members of the children to accept the bodies. Singh had also said that all efforts were underway to find the culprits.
The two children were killed in a bomb attack at Tronglaobi in Bishnupur district on April 7. Their bodies were kept in the morgue at the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences in Imphal.
The incident had triggered widespread violent protests in the five valley districts of Manipur, and the case was subsequently handed over to the NIA.
Hundreds of people lined up along the way to Tronglaobi to offer floral tributes, as the mortal remains were taken for the last rites in an open vehicle earlier in the day.
