HC wants report on facilities given to convicts of condemned cells

Staff Reporter :
The High Court on Monday asked the Inspector General of Prisons (IG Prisons) to submit a report with it stating specific information about the inside management of the Condemned Cells, in where the death convicts are kept confined.
The authorities have been asked to highlight in the report about the living, eating, sleeping arrangement of the prisoners in the condemned cells, whether the light and air enters the cells, whether there is a bathroom or toilet.
The court has asked the Inspector General of Prisons to submit the report by April 4 this year and fixed the same date for further hearing on the issue.
The High Court Bench of Justice Farah Mahbub and Justice Ahmed Sohel passed the order after hearing a writ petition filed challenging the confinement of the death row convicts in the condemned cells before attaining finality of their sentence.
Following the writ petition, another High Court Bench on April 5 last year issued a rule asking the respondents to explain as to why the confinement of the death row convicts in the condemned cells before attaining finality of their sentence by the judicial and administrative forums shall not be declared illegal.
Three death row convicts, Zillur Rahman from Chattogram Central Jail, Md Abdul Basir from Sylhet Central Jail, and Md Shah Alam from Cumilla Central Jail, filed the writ petition on September 2 in 2021 challenging the legality of the actions of keeping them in the condemned cells. In the rule, the court also wanted to know as to why the Rule 980 of the Bangladesh Jail Code relating to the confinement of death row inmates in condemned cell should not be declared unconstitutional.
Secretary of the Security Services Division of the Home Ministry, Secretary of the Law and Justice Division of the Law Ministry, Inspector General of Police, Inspector General of Prisons, and Senior Jail Supers of Chattogram Central Jail, Sylhet Central Jail and Cumilla Central Jail have been asked to comply with the rule in four weeks.
The court also asked the Inspector General of Prisons to submit a report in the court within six months stating the facilities available for the convicts confined in the condemned cells across the country.
Complying with the court asking the Inspector General of Prisons submitted a report in the court on Monday. A total of 2,162 convicts are imprisoned in the condemned cells of different prisons of the country with the death sentence, according to the report.
A total of 2,512 cells for the male convicts and 145 cells for the female convicts, also read the report prepared till November 1, last year. The number of death row male prisoners is 2,099 and there are 63 female prisoners.
Upon hearing the report, the High Court asked to submit a report with it containing specific information about the inside management of the Condemned Cells.
Lawyer Shishir Mohammad Manir who appeared in the court hearing on behalf of the writ petitioners said “One accused is taken to the condemned cell directly soon after he has given death sentence by a trial court. However, it takes six to 14 years more to finally dispose of a case in the High Court and the Appellate Divisions, while keeping the convict in the condemned cell.”
In this circumstance, we challenged the Rule 980 of the Jail Code that relates to the confinement of death row inmates in condemned cells, added the lawyer.