BOMBAY SHOWED DISAPOINTMENT AT THE INSUFFICIENT NUMBER OF BOOKS IN THE TALOJA CENTRAL PRISON

The Bombay High Court recently said that prisons may not necessarily be all about walls, bars, and guards. The HC showed disappointment at the insufficient number of books in the Taloja Central Prison.

A bench of Justices Sunil Shukre and Justice GA Sanap noted the library contained only 2,850 books though the prison housed approximately 3,000 inmates. 

"Libraries are important for jail inmates. 2800 books are nothing. Even a secondary school will have more books,” Justice Shukre remarked.

The bench was hearing a plea by Gautam Navlakha, an accused in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon case, praying to be transferred from Taloja jail and placed under house arrest instead. He earlier informed the court that a book by PG Wodehouse was delivered to him personally, but the same was returned twice by the prison.

The Bench enquired if the prison had other books by PG Wodehouse or Marathi humor author PL Deshpande. To which, the Additional Public Prosecutor Sangeeta Shinde informed that the prison did not have Wodehouse. Justice Shukre quipped, “Why, is humor banished from prison?” 

Shinde further informed that there were about 2850 books in the prison.

When the bench remarked that the number was too low, the Additional Public Prosecutor justified by stating “not everyone reads”.