Madhya Pradesh High Court: In a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) highlighting allegedly unsanitary storage of drinking water for inmates of Central Jail in Jabalpur, thereby raising concerns about their health and safety, a division bench of Sanjeev Sachdeva, ACJ., and Vinay Saraf, J., directed the Superintendent of Central Jail Jabalpur to have the drinking water tested for potability by an approved laboratory and submit the test results before the next hearing date.
In the instant matter, the petitioner filed the present writ petition based on information obtained under the Right to Information Act (RTI). The petitioner contended that the drinking water stored for jail inmates in the Central Jail, Jabalpur, is likely contaminated due to improper storage practices. As a result, inmates are possibly being supplied non-potable drinking water, which raises concerns about their health and safety.
The Court issued notice to the respondents, and the Additional Advocate General accepted the notice on behalf of the State. The Court directed —
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The Superintendent of Central Jail, Jabalpur, to have the drinking water tested by an approved laboratory to ascertain its potability and submit the test report to the Court before the next hearing.
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The Superintendent to submit a report detailing how the potable drinking water is stored and supplied to the jail inmates.
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The District Judge of Jabalpur to inspect the jail premises and file a report on the storage and supply of drinking water.
The Court listed the case for the next hearing on 23-10-2024.
[Amitabha Gupta v. State of M.P., 2024 SCC OnLine MP 6256, Decided on 23-09-2024]
Advocates who appeared in this case:
Ms. Aparajita Gupta, Counsel for the Petitioner
Shri Bharat Singh – Additional Advocate General, Counsel for the Respondent No. 1
