Activists bat for smoking in prison

KOCHI: A prison cell is the private world of prisoners and the law that prohibits smoking in public places cannot be applied to prisons, said a group of human rights activists ahead of a convention to be held in Payyannur in Kannur district today demanding that the government withdraw the order issued by jail ADGP banning smoking in jails.

The ban on smoking in jails was an invasion on the rights of prisoners and their individual dignity, said K. Rajmohan, an organiser of the Human Rights Collective. Jails are not designated as public places in the high court judgment which banned smoking in public places, he said.

Even the Supreme Court which had upheld the HC verdict and the 2003 Act banning smoking had also not treated jails as public places, he said. The ADGP (prisons) has issued an order banning smoking in jails in June. Although a similar order was issued in 2005, it was withdrawn by the government as various sections of people had highlighted the unjustness of the order, Rajmohan said.

A meeting scheduled on the issue at the Gandhi Park Hall in Payyannur today will be addressed by writers K.K. Kochu, Asokan, Dileep Raj, Prof M Muhammad, activists TN Joy, P.T. Thomas, Govindaraj, P.U. Meera and several others.