Revamp video calls in courts, jails: Bombay HC

Mumbai: The Bombay high court has directed the state government to replace the obsolete phone and cable lines providing internet to the 38 jails and 600 trial courts in the state after it was informed that the video conferencing facility in many jails and courts was hampered due to faulty lines.

The court also directed the state to hire the services of private Internet providers in places where the BSNL was not capable of handling high-speed browsing.

The directions were issued after hearing presentations by various departments of the state and prisons regarding the unavailability of video conferencing facilities for jail inmates who could not be taken to court.

A division bench of justice V.M Kanade and justice C.V Bhadang held an open hearing of a criminal public interest litigation filed by Shaikh Abdul Naeem. The undertrial had complained to the chief justice, saying that the police was not producing him in the court due to lack of staff. The letter had prompted the court to direct the state and police to install video conferencing facilities in all prisons and courts in the state. Last week, the court held a compliance hearing in which the additional chief secretary of prison, police authorities and the amicus curiae presented a status report on the implementation of the court directives.

Additional director general and IG (prisons) B.K Upadhyay informed the bench that 332 courts already had video conferencing facilities and 187 units would be installed within six months.

While pointing to the difficulties faced by the department in making these facilities available in prisons and court, Mr Upadhyay said that old and obsolete lines were causing connectivity problems. He also told the court that the prisons also faced connectivity issues in certain areas where BSNL did not have a strong presence.