Chennai: The Madras high court suggested to state government on Monday to instal digital fingerprinting machines in all 136 prisons in the state, to digitalise the records of prisoners. While dealing with a case of setting off the pre-conviction detention period in respect of six life convicts, a division bench, comprising justices S. Rajeswaran and P.N. Prakash, said it has come to their notice that when a prisoner was transferred from one prison to another, particulars relating to his pre-conviction detention were seldom sent to the receiving prison. On account of this, problems arise in calculating the period of set off.
The best way to obviate this difficulty was to instal digital fingerprinting machines in all 136 prisons in the state. Holding that the convict prisoners in these cases will be entitled to set off the period of detention already undergone, the bench allowed the petitions from Ganesan and five other convict prisoners and said the convict prisoners were directed to be given the period of set off, ranging from 67 to 451 days. The bench directed all trial courts in the state to give details of periods and types of detention undergone by prisoners in all cases.
