Guwahati: Gauhati high court has taken suo motu cognisance of health and prison-administration problems in Assam jails, including HIV infections, overcrowding, inadequate mental healthcare, suicides and delays in remission pleas.A division bench of Chief Justice Ashutosh Kumar and Justice Arun Dev Choudhury took up the matter on Friday and directed state govt to submit a detailed action-taken report.The court said the issues needed to be addressed “on emergency basis” and asked the state’s law officers to file an affidavit outlining the steps taken and proposed by the departments handling prison administration and health.The court registered the suo motu writ petition following a media report on conditions at Guwahati Central Jail, where 38 inmates, including five women, tested HIV-positive. Many were facing cases under the NDPS Act and were known drug users. The court said although the exact mode of transmission could not be established immediately, sharing of infected needles was suspected in several cases.The inmates were receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) at Gauhati Medical College and Hospital, the court noted.The bench also considered an inspection report submitted by the member secretary of the Assam State Legal Services Authority, which it said, “also reflects a grim picture of prison conditions across Assam”.“During his recent visits to almost all the jails in the state, the member secretary found severe overcrowding of inmates. In some jails, about 42-45 prisoners were packed into a small room, with only one toilet. The situation was found to be very acute in the district jails of Nalbari, Dhubri, Hailakandi and Sribhumi,” the bench noted.The court said inmates from other states in Sivasagar and Dhubri jails complained that they were neither allowed to use mobile phones to contact their families nor provided any alternative communication facility.It expressed concern over the lack of mental healthcare in prisons, saying it was “completely ignored” and, in effect, non-existent in the jails inspected. Several inmates showed signs of psychological disorders, while prisoners said psychiatrists did not visit the jails regularly.The bench noted that three convicts died by suicide in Nalbari District Jail, while similar incidents were recently reported from Udalguri jail.“Over a period of the last five years, 27 cases of unnatural deaths and suicides have been reported in the jails of Assam,” the court said.The bench also flagged complaints from life convicts that their remission applications remained pending before the remission board for two to three years.Referring to the minutes of the State Legal Review Board meeting held on March 19, 2026, the court noted that 32 remission proposals made in 2025 were returned, while only one of 58 cases involving life imprisonment was approved.The court also considered an inspection conducted by the chief judicial magistrate, Kamrup (M), at Guwahati Central Jail on Aug 2. Against its registered capacity of 1,400 inmates, the jail housed 1,672 prisoners, including 77 women, on the day of inspection.The inspection report recorded 31 HIV-positive inmates, including two women, one TB patient and 19 prisoners undergoing psychiatric treatment. Although some facilities were functional, the court described the overall condition as a “grim state of affairs”.The bench asked additional advocates general PN Goswami and B Gogoi, representing departments handling prison administration and health, to submit a detailed affidavit on the remedial measures being taken.
