In jail with convicted mother, hope floats for four-year-old

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 30

With her mother in custody and her father not yet traced, a four-year-old girl is spending her childhood in the Gurdaspur Central Jail.

But things might change for her with the intervention of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Justice Rajan Gupta has asked the state counsel to specify “whether any member in the convict’s family can look after the child” and whether it is possible for an NGO or a social organisation to take her custody.

Justice Gupta has also asked the Gurdaspur District and Sessions Judge to visit the jail before submitting a report on the child’s welfare. He said the Sessions Judge would be entitled to seek assistance from the Deputy Commissioner and the Senior Superintendent of Police.

The developments took place on a petition filed by the convict, Munni, against Punjab. Praying for the suspension of sentence awarded to her, her counsel told the court that the four-year-old girl had been detained along with the applicant-appellant.

The state counsel submitted that efforts were being made to find out the father’s whereabouts.

Justice Gupta gave the state counsel time to inform the Bench, after seeking instructions from the Punjab Home Secretary, on whether the Supreme Court guidelines on women prisoners and their children were being followed in letter and in spirit.

Justice Gupta added that the guidelines made it clear that female prisoners would be allowed to keep their children with them in jail till they attained the age of six years. But after completing six years, the child will be handed over to a “suitable surrogate as per the wishes of the female prisoner”.

As an alternative, the child will be sent to a suitable institution run by the Social Welfare Department. As far as possible, the child will not be transferred to an institution outside the town or the city.