SC for CAG audit of expenses incurred on inmates by states

New Delhi: There is a "huge discrepancy" in expenses incurred on jail inmates by various states, the Supreme Court has said and asked the Home Ministry to come out with a scheme to audit spendings by prisons with CAG's assistance.

The apex court said auditing of these accounts was necessary to ascertain whether the money was being spent "wisely" and being utilised for the benefit of prisoners.

A three-judge bench headed by Justice M B Lokur referred to the discrepancies, particularly in 2015-2016, as pointed out by the amicus curiae.

As per the data, the expense per inmate in jails in Bihar was Rs 83,691 per annum, while that in Rajasthan was only about Rs 3,000 per annum. Similarly, in Nagaland, it stood at about Rs 65,468 per annum, while in Punjab, it was around Rs 16,669, it noted.

"There is a huge discrepancy in this regard which needs to be looked into. It may also perhaps be necessary to have the accounts audited to ascertain whether the money is being spent wisely and whether it is being utilised for the benefit of the prisoners or not," the bench, also comprising Justices P C Pant and Deepak Gupta, said.

"The Ministry of Home Affairs will come out with a scheme for auditing these accounts with the assistance of the Comptroller and Auditor General at the earliest and, if possible, by March 31, 2017," it said.

The apex court also passed a slew of directions for jail reforms across the country and asked the Centre to take urgent steps to ensure proper training of jail staff after it was informed that barely 7,800 prison employees out of 50,000 have been given some training.

The bench said there were "serious deficiencies" in the training of jail officers and staff which reflected "an unhappy state of affairs".

Regarding training of jail officers, the apex court said concrete steps should be taken in this regard by March-end.

"It has been pointed out that there are serious deficiencies in training of jail officers/staff. It appears that over the last many years, hardly about 7800 staff have been given some kind of training, mostly refresher training. This is an unhappy state of affairs considering the fact that the number of staff is in the region of about 50,000.

"In view of the above and to standardise the training to be given to the various categories of staff in prisons, we direct the Ministry of Home Affairs to take urgent steps to prepare training manuals for various categories of staff and officers in jails. Concrete steps should be taken in this regard on or before March 31, 2017," the court said.

The bench said the Union Home Ministry could also consult

state governments and union territories in this regard.

Dealing with the aspect of staff crunch in jails across the country, it directed all state governments and UTs to take immediate steps to fill up existing vacancies and initiate concrete steps on or before March 31.

Taking note of the submission by amicus about a government response in Lok Sabha last year, the bench observed that the sanctioned strength of jail officers and staff as on December 31, 2014 was 79,988, out of which the actual strength is only 52,666.

"There is a gap of about 27,000 staff/officers as on December 31, 2014... We direct all the States and UTs to take immediate steps to fill up existing vacancies and initiate concrete steps in this regard on or before March 31, 2017. The steps taken by each State/UT should be intimated to the MHA which will instruct Additional Solicitor General accordingly," it said.

During the hearing, the Home Ministry told the bench that a manual for the juveniles in conflict with law was under preparation and it is likely to be ready by March 31.

"We expect the concerned Ministry of Women and Child Development to complete the process. We expect all the state governments/union territories to cooperate with the Ministry of Home Affairs and provide all necessary data and information.

"In the event, the state governments/union territories do not provide necessary data and information to the Ministry of Home Affairs, we will be constrained to impose very heavy costs," the bench said and posted the matter for hearing on April 12.