STATE TIMES NEWS
Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir High Court has sought response from the state and Union governments on the issue of providing compensation to the next of kin of inmates who had an unnatural death in prison.
A bench comprising justices Mohammad Yaqoob Mir and Ali Mohammad Magrey directed the state, through Principal Secretary (Home), Director General-Prisons and Director General of Police, and the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to file their response within three weeks.
The high court gave the direction after it initiated a PIL based on directions of the Supreme Court.
The bench ordered the respondents to file their response to the directions by the Supreme Court regarding adequate compensation to the kin of inmates who had unnatural death in prisons across the state from 2012.
The Supreme Court had requested the Chief Justice to register a “suo motu public interest petition” with a view to identify the next of kin of prisoners “who have admittedly died an unnatural death as revealed by the National Crime Records Bureau from 2012 onwards”.
It has also been directed that suitable compensation be provided to the next of kin of these prisoners, unless adequate compensation has already been awarded.
