Prison Reforms
Checking, Correcting and Preventing Human Rights Violations through
Community Involvement in Prisons

Prison Laws in India

Prison as a subject of legislation is placed under Entry 4 in List-II [state list] of the seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India. Hence, prisons in different states vary in their organization, rules and models.

Broadly speaking there are four legislations that govern the administration of prisons in India with necessary amendments varying from state to state. Click here for the legislations.

Besides the above, there are various miscellaneous legislations such as Identification of Prisoners Act [1920], Civil Jails Act [1874], Borstal Schools Act and Habitual Offenders Act.

The day-to-day administration of prisons in all the states and union territories of India are governed by the respective Jail Manuals containing the Rules, Regulations, Orders and the various amendments thereto inserted on a regular basis.

Keeping in view that the laws are now archaic and that the Prisons Act of 1894 was drafted during the period of British rule experts and committees have been demanding the enactment of a new law. The All India Committee on Jail Reforms [1980 - 83] more popularly known as the Mulla Committee in fact drafted a model prison bill on the lines of the standards recommended by the Standard Minimum Rules for Treatment of Prisoners, 1955.

Then the National Human Rights Commission of India proposed two model prison bills for consideration by state governments and re-enactment of the prison legislations in their states in accordance with the standards prescribed by the Commission. These were the Indian Prison Bill of 1996 and The Prisons [Administration and Treatment of Prisoners] Bill of 1998 respectively. A few states namely Delhi, Jammu & Kashmir and Rajasthan had come out with new bills/ legislations. The Ministry of Home Affairs which is responsible for administration of prisons in India, then circulated the draft bill of 1998 to all the state governments for consideration.

Presently the prisons department of the Bureau of Police Research & Development [BPR&D] under the Ministry of Home Affairs is engaged in drafting a Model National Prison Manual relying on Article 252 of the Constitution of India which provides the Parliament of India to legislate for two or more states by consent and adoption of such legislation by any other state.

To get the support of all state governments in getting the Model Manual accepted, the BPR&D enlisted the services of prison officers in drafting the manual along with a few other academics and retired prison experts. While CHRI is yet to review and critique the draft, a few NGOs have critiqued the draft and said that it does not provide for much room for community intervention and participation in prison reforms and that this is a direct fall-out of enlisting so many prison officers most of whom would not prefer to have any outside party in their prison turf/ domain.