BENGALURU: All the 62 jails in Karnataka will soon have video conferencing link with courts to save time and money and tide over scarcity of police escorts. This was disclosed by Home Minister K.J. George and Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister T.B. Jayachandra at a joint news conference here on Friday.
They said many undertrials miss case hearing due to non-availability of police escorts. The cost of this project was estimated to be around Rs 30 crore. A sub-committee has been constituted to work out the modalities and asked to submit its report within 15 days. It would be placed before the Cabinet for approval.
It may be recalled that the Supreme Court had opined that hearing of cases should not be delayed for want of police escorts. “Our endeavour is to implement this as early as possible as thousands of cases were pending before courts,” they said. They also pointed out that there have also been cases of undertrials escaping while being taken to courts. It was also risky to transport prisoners amid busy traffic in a city like Bengaluru, they added.
Taking all these factors into consideration, the State government had decided to provide video conferencing facility. High resolution cameras would be procured to ensure the clear visibility of undertrials. They would also be produced in person, if judges wish. The cases would be heard by judges through video conferencing.
This facility had been provided to some jails in Jharkhand to hear cases of naxalites. Perhaps, Karnataka will be the first state to provide video conferencing facility to all jails. As of now around 12.65 lakh cases were pending before courts in Karnataka, they added.
Tele-medicine
They said all jails would be linked to tele-medicine to provide healthcare to prisoners. At present this facility was available in some jails and would be extended to others. Many prisoners try to avoid spending time in jail and cite health reasons to get admitted to jail wards in hospitals. This can be avoided by providing tele-medicine link, they said.
