Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court on Friday issued notices to the state governments of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana directing them to reveal whether they had awarded any compensation to the families in cases of unnatural deaths and suicides that have taken place in prisons across both states.
A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranga-nathan and Justice M. Ganga Rao was dealing with a suo motu PIL with regard to unnatural deaths and suicides in prisons.
The High Court had taken up the case following a request from the Supreme Court in September this year that all high courts take suo motu cognisance of such deaths and award compensation to the families.
The Apex Court bench comprising Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta asked the chief justice of each high court to register a suo motu public interest petition with a view to identify the next of kin of the prisoners who have died an unnatural death as revealed by the National Crime Records Bureau during the period between 2012 and 2015.
The Supreme Court noted that as many as 651 custodial deaths were reported between 2012 and 2015 across the country and out of 651 deaths 328 are suicides.
The High Court has granted two weeks to both state governments and their authorities concerned to file their affidavits.
