Hearing a petition filed by K.R. Raja of Madurai, a Division Bench of Justices C.V. Karthikeyan and R. Sakthivel ordered issue of the notice. The petitioner also sought a direction to the authorities to provide free communication facilities to indigent, aged, women, differently abled and other prisoners.
He said as per the 2023 G.O. issued by the Home Department, the government permitted setting up of telephone booths with voice and video-call facilities in prisons with the assistance of public sector undertakings/ organisations.
Telephone entitlement was increased from eight calls to 10 calls per month and from 56 minutes to 120 minutes per month, with a maximum of 12 minutes per call, with the intension of improving communication facilities available to prisoners, he said.
It was reported that prisoners were now required to pay approximately ₹28 for every 10-minute call, resulting in an expenditure of nearly ₹280 per month merely to use the permitted telephone facility, whereas ordinary citizens outside the prisons were able to obtain unlimited voice calls, thousands of minutes, daily data and SMS facilities for a comparable or lesser amount of approximately ₹200 to ₹350 per month, he said.
The affordability of the facility was an important issue because a prisoner could not ordinarily earn or access money in the same manner as a person living outside prison. Therefore, the actual tariff and its impact upon prisoners who were unable to afford the charges required consideration. This discrimination must be treated with urgency and the seriousness it demanded, he said. The court posted the matter for hearing to October 14.