Madurai Bench of Madras High Court wants status report on compensation disbursed
Madurai: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court directed the State government to file a detailed status report on a petition contending that the Tamil Nadu prison authorities failed to disburse the victims compensation fund deducted from the wages of prisoners.
Athisayakumar from Makkal Membattu Kalagam, Thoothukudi district filed a petition before the division bench comprising Justices S. Nagamuthu and
G. Muralidharan seeking to direct the secretary to government, Home (Prison) department and ADGP, Prison department to disperse the victim compensation fund deducted from the wages of prisoners under the rule 486(6) of Tamil Nadu Prison Rules 1983 to all victims including the children and spouses of murder case accused / victims within the stipulated period.
The petitioner’s counsel R. Alagumani argued that the rule 480 (1) of Tamil Nadu Prison Rules classified three categories of prisoners as Skilled; Semi-Skilled and Unskilled and it had fixed the wages accordingly once in every five years. At present Rs 100 was fixed a wage for skilled prisoner; Rs 80 for semi skilled prisoner and Rs 60 for unskilled prisoner, he said.
The rule 481 of the Tamil Nadu Prison rules 1983 also clearly stated that 50 percent of wages earned by the prisoners shall be deducted for the upkeep of the prisoners; 30 percent of the wages earned shall be credited to the prisoners Cash Property Account and 20 percent of the wages shall be credited to Prison Fund to be paid of the victims.
However, information obtained through RTI by the petitioner revealed that the prison authorities don’t disburse the compensation amount deducted from prisoners’ wages to victim’s families. While many prison officials don’t gave proper information about the fund, information furnished by the Superintendent of Selam Central Prison revealed that Rs 19,92,342 collected from the prisoners’ salary from 2000 to 2013 for the victims’ fund was merged with the government account. Similarly, Rs 66.83 lakh from Palayamkottai Central prison was deposited in the government account, said Alagumani, the counsel.
The petitioner also received similar response from the Superintendent of Madurai, Coimbatore and Cuddalore Central prisons and that such information proves that the victims’ fund was not distributed in proper manner, he claimed.
“When we interviewed a few children of spouses of murder case victims, we were shocked to found that they have been living in pathetic condition without their parents. Lack of parental care has forced many children to discontinue their studies and in some cases the anti social elements misused their unfortunate situation and involved them in anti-social activities, said the petitioner. These children are eligible for the compensation. The petitioner made representations to various government officials, but only in vain and hence he approached the court.
