Patna: Patna High Court has directed the state govt to provide prison inmates with copies of their ‘history tickets’ — records of their conduct and other details considered while assessing their eligibility for remission, or reduction of their prison term.A division bench of Justices Bibek Chaudhuri and Chandra Shekhar Jha, while hearing a criminal writ petition instituted suo motu by the High Court administration, issued a series of directives to the state govt on prison administration, including timelines for processing remission applications and access to vocational courses for inmates. The judgment was delivered on Sept 18 and made public on Monday.The court issued directions on 17 issues, including making the history tickets of 32 life convicts whose cases are being considered by the state remission board available in the public domain. The records are to be uploaded on a dedicated portal of the state home department.The court also directed the home department to provide a grievance mechanism for prisoners who allege partiality or favouritism by prison authorities in the processing of remission cases. The suggestion for such a mechanism was made by advocate Pratik Kumar Sinha, who was appointed amicus curiae in the case. Additional advocate general P K Verma represented the state govt.The court has given the state govt four weeks to comply with the directions.
