PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti files PIL before Jammu-Kashmir High Court for return of undertrials to UT

Mehbooba Mufti

Former Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) President Mehbooba Mufti has filed a public interest litigation (PIL) before the Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court, urging it to order the return of undertrial prisoners from outside prisons back to the Union Territory,according to a Bar and Bench report. The case, titled Mehbooba Mufti vs Union of India, seeks immediate judicial intervention to address what she describes as a violation of the fundamental rights of detainees, the report said.

Through her counsel Aditya Gupta, Mufti argued that after August 5, 2019 -- the day Article 370 was revoked and J&K’s statehood was revoked -- several residents of the region who are under investigation or awaiting trial have been shifted to jails in distant States.

“Post August 5, 2019, numerous J&K residents facing investigation or trial in J&K were lodged in prisons outside the UT. FIRs are registered and trials convened within J&K, yet incarceration occurs hundreds of kilometres away defeating the court access, family visits, and counsel conferences, and imposing crippling travel costs on indigent families,” the plea states.

The petition contends that such detentions breach the rights guaranteed under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution -- particularly the rights to equality, family contact, effective legal aid, and a fair and speedy trial. According to the PIL filed by Mufti, “Most of the under trials cannot meet their family as the cost of such travels is enormous and is not possible to travel on a regular basis making the process of trial itself a punishment.”

She has further highlighted that in many of these cases, the evidence is extensive and the witness lists are long, necessitating regular and confidential consultations between the accused and their lawyers. However, “this becomes impossible in practice when the undertrial is housed in a far-off State prison,” the petition says.

The PIL highlights that continuing the practice of lodging J&K undertrials in prisons outside the Union Territory amounts to “punishment by process” and runs contrary to both domestic law and international human rights norms governing the treatment of prisoners.

Mufti’s petition also references several Supreme Court rulings and the provisions of the Model Prison Manual, which emphasise humane treatment, adequate family interaction, and meaningful legal access for prisoners. She maintains that these safeguards are being systematically undermined by the existing system of transferring undertrials to faraway prisons.

The High Court has yet to fix a date for the hearing of the matter.