The Jammu and Kashmir administration is alive to the fact that jail inmates too have the right to life and the Union Territory is in the process of vaccinating all eligible people, State Advocate General D.C. Raina told the Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Friday.
Mr. Raina made these remarks before the Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice Rajnesh Oswal, which heard a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition on making vaccines available to all prisoners.
“We are conscious of the fact that all prisoners have the right to life. We [the Jammu and Kashmir administration] are in a process that everybody should be vaccinated,” the A-G said.
The Bench disposed of the petition and asked the petitioner to make a formal representation to the Director General, Prisons, on vaccination of jail inmates.
Lawyer Syed Musaib, who filed the plea, said the prisoners were being denied vaccines and access to mandatory Co-WIN application for registration.
“Undertrials, convicts and detainees, though eligible for vaccination, have so far been denied access to the vaccine and were yet to get access to the mandatory Internet-based application,” he said.
According to officials, no inmate has tested positive for Coronavirus in the 13 major prisons of the Union Territory.
