Kerala High Court Orders Operationalisation Of e-Prison Portal In Two Weeks To Prevent Prolonged Detention Of Undertrials
The Kerala High Court on Friday (February 13) issued detailed directions for ensuring that e-Prison portal is completed and made operational in a time-bound manner.
It also asked the State Government to consider Kerala State Legal Service Authority's (KeLSA) Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for implementing the Support to Poor Prisoners Scheme.
The Division Bench comprising Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan V. and Justice K.V. Jayakumar was considering a suo motu petition initiated pursuant to a 2023 order of the Supreme Court, which had issued guidelines on the issue of undertrial prisoners, who continued to be jailed even though they were granted bail since they were unable to comply with the bail conditions. Following this, the High Court had been consistently passing orders to ensure that the e-prison dashboard functions in a streamlined manner, containing all data required for the effective administration of prisons.
When the matter came up for consideration last week, the Court opined that cooperation between courts, the National Informatics Centre (NIC), the Kerala State Legal Service Authority (KeLSA), the Prison and Police departments, lawyers, etc. were necessary for completing the portal.
It also took note of the SOP prepared by KeLSA, which had incorporated all the guidelines of the Central government for effective implementation of the “Support to Poor Prisoners Scheme”, in addition to more advanced and progressive provision in favour of prisoners.
KeLSA had also made a request to the State government to revoke its earlier order G.O.(P) No. 37/2024/Home dated 02.04.2024 and to re-issue a comprehensive, integrated SOP incorporating the improvements in KeLSA's SOP. The Court felt that this has to be done. It remarked:
“Having perused the revised SOP prepared by KeLSA, we are of the prima facie view that the same is far more comprehensive, progressive and beneficial in its application. The request made for revocation of G.O.(P) No.37 of 2024, therefore, requires earnest consideration at the hands of the State Government…We are therefore of the view that the said SOP deserves to be operationalised and given effect to at the earliest, at any rate within a period of one month from today.”
Directions for an effective e-Prison portal
“We are of the view that, in order to ensure that the benefits of the e-Prison module are made available to all prisoners languishing in the jails across the State of Kerala, there has to be a coordinated and institutionalised effort between all stakeholders, including the Courts, the Prison Department, the National Informatics Centre (NIC), the Police Department and KeLSA,” the Court observed.
Completion of portal
The NIC was asked to ensure that all the modules in the portal are fully developed and functional within 2 weeks, and thereafter to file a compliance report by February 27. For this, the Kerala and Delhi Units of the NIC are to work together and take inputs from KeLSA, the Prison department, the IT Directorate of the High Court, panel advocates, government pleaders and Central Government Counsels if needed.
The senior officials of the Prison Department is to provide all assistance to the NIC and to participate in meetings to ensure that the portal takes into consideration ground-level realities and functional requirements. KeLSA is directed to ensure that legal services requirements and prisoners' rights are properly reflected.
Stakeholder Training
Another aspect highlighted by the Court was the training of stakeholders to use the portal once it is fully functional. The NIC in coordination with High Court's IT Directorate is directed to conduct physical and in-person training programmes for all data entry operators and officers concerned in all prisons in Kerala. The NIC is to ensure that participants from every jail attends the training and a jail-wise participants list is to be submitted before the Court.
Training related to legal aid services and monitoring functions are to be given to KeLSA officials, Secretaries and staff of District Legal Services Authorities (DLSAs).
The compliance report with dates of training, lists of participants are to be filed before the Court within 2 weeks from the date of first demonstration of the fully operational module, by March 13.
Data Entry
Subsequent to the training, the prisons in Kerala have to complete data entry in all the fields of the e-Prison system, the Court has directed. This includes data required to be accessible through the KeLSA and DLSA e-Prison Legal Aid Portals, within a further period of two weeks.
The Superintendents/Officers-in-charge of all jails can seek assistance from the respective DLSA or KeLSA to ensure completion and they are to then file independent, jail-wise affidavits before the Court regarding data entry being complete and error-free.
Demonstration of portal before the Court
The Court has also laid down a deadline for the NIC to demonstrate the fully functional portal to it and in case of any delay in adhering with the timelines, the officer concerned has to explain the same through individual affidavit.
“Upon completion of the aforesaid steps, the NIC Team shall, on 01.04.2026, demonstrate before this Court the fully operational e-Prison Portal, with all modules activated and data duly populated across all prisons and DLSAs in the State of Kerala….This exercise is directed with a view to ensuring effective implementation of earlier orders of this Court, safeguarding prisoners' rights, and institutionalising accountability across all stakeholder institutions,” the Court added.
The case is posted on April 4.
Case No: WP(Crl.) No. 867 of 2024
Case Title: Suo Motu v. State of Kerala and Ors.