Keeping child in prison not wrong, govt tells HC

Madurai: In a case in which a three-year-old boy languished in a Kanyakumari prison for 35 days along with his aunt, the Tamil Nadu government on Friday sought to show that detention of a child in prison was not wrong and cited a 2006 Supreme Court judgment relating to welfare of children of women undertrial prisoners/women convicts.
When the case came up for hearing in the Madurai bench of the Madras high court, the government told the court the SC issued many guidelines, including that women prisoners should be allowed to keep their children with them in jail till they attain the age of six years.
This may weaken the case against the judicial magistrate of Kulitharai and police personnel of Marthandam station who caused the boy's detention in prison.
In her case, M Mary, who belongs to the kurava community, said the Marthandam police on June 21 arrested her husband N Murugan, his sister Mariammal and her husband Guruvan along with her three-year old son. But the police claimed before the court that they took many steps to trace the child's biological mother, which went in vain. It may be recalled that the division bench of Justice K K Sasidharan and Justice B Gokuldas summoned the Kulithurai judicial magistrate P Shunmugaraj and Marthandam police inspector A Muthuraj, who accordingly appeared before the court on July 25. The bench, which pulled them up, directed the director general of police to initiate disciplinary action against the inspector and sought explanation from the judicial magistrate. Later, the bench on August 31 sought a reply from the home secretary and adjourned the case.
Accordingly, the case came up for hearing on Friday. The bench said the Supreme Court had given many guidelines directing the state governments to set up various facilities for the welfare of children of women undertrial prisoners and women convicts, including setting up of crèches attached to the prison. The bench asked whether those guidelines have been implemented in prisons and directed the government to file a report. The case was adjourned to September 20.