17 Foreign Nationals in Shillong District Jail Despite Completing Sentences, Finds High Court

New Delhi: Fifteen Bangladeshi nationals, one Myanmar national and one Nigerian are lodged in Shillong District Jail despite having completing their sentences, the Meghalaya high court has found. Besides that 11 prisoners who have completed their terms are lodged in other jails across Meghalaya.

The Hindu reported that a team which was tasked by the high court to visit the Shillong District Jail found that the Nigerian and the Bangladeshi nationals have been there for six months to a couple of years while the Myanmar national has been behind bars for over ten years. Further, the team also examined whether the prisoners were receiving adequate legal aid and checked their living condition in jail.

On Wednesday (September 9), a division bench of Chief Justice Revati Mohite Dere and Justice Wanlura Diengdoh reprimanded Additional Advocate General Khalid Khan for providing “completely misleading and incorrect” information about the condition of the prisons and prisoners in a letter submitted on August 28, the report mentioned.

The court made these observations while hearing a writ petition filed by the court’s registrar general.

Khan had reportedly informed the court earlier that there was only one Bangladeshi national who had completed his sentence and had continued to remain in jail for more than a year, The Shillong Times reported. However, the team visiting the Shillong District Jail found as many as 17 foreign nationals behind bars.

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Amicus curiae T. Yangi B. informed the bench that during her prison visits, she found four prisoners lodged in Williamnagar Jail, three prisoners in Tura Jail, and four prisoners in Nongpoh Jail, however, she was not sure if they were Indians or foreign nationals, The Shillong Times report added.

During the hearing, Meghalaya's inspector general of prisons told the court that due to the absence of detention centres in the state, the prisoners who had completed their terms were still behind bars.

The high court underlined that the Supreme Court had, in several judgments, repeatedly mentioned that detention of an accused after completion of the sentence period is illegal and violates Article 21 of the constitution.

“We cannot countenance persons being incarcerated in jail, despite having completed their sentence. Of course, the question of compensation will be considered at an appropriate stage for all those who have been kept in prison beyond the period of sentence,” the bench was quoted as saying by TH.

Further, the bench noted that the law required foreign nationals to be shifted to a temporary facility once their sentences were over.

The court has asked the additional advocate general to seek instructions on how quickly a location could be designated as a detention centre, pending the setting up of a permanent one.

The court has also directed the commissioner and secretary, Home Police Department; the commissioner and secretary, Department of Prisons and Correctional Services; the Inspector General of Prisons; and a senior officer from the Foreigners Registration Office (FRO), Shillong, to be present during the next hearing.

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