SRINAGAR, Jul 13: Chief Justice, High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh and Patron-in-chief, J&K Legal Services Authority, Justice N. Kotiswar Singh today visited the Central Jail here to assess the conditions of the prisoners and the quality of legal aid services being provided to them.
The Chief Justice was accompanied by his Principal Secretary, MK Sharma and Member Secretary of J & K Legal Services Authority, Amit Gupta.
On arrival to Central Jail, the Chief Justice was received by the Director General of Prisons, J & K, Deepak Kumar and DLSA Srinagar Chairman Jawad Ahmed. Superintendent of Central Jail Srinagar, Daljit Singh; SP North Zone Srinagar, Raja Zuhaib and other officers of Central Jail Srinagar were also present on the occasion.
The Chief Justice, upon his arrival, was also accorded ceremonial guard of honor by the contingent of CRPF deployed at the Central Jail.
During the visit, the Chief Justice had a round of all the barracks and interacted extensively with the inmates and patiently listened to their grievances and concerns. The Chief Justice assured the inmates that their genuine grievances shall be redressed and also issued on spot instructions to the concerned to ensure that the grievances projected by the inmates are addressed at the earliest.
During the visit, the Chief Justice engaged in constructive discussions with prison officials, legal aid volunteers, and inmates of Central Jail Srinagar. During interaction all the jail inmates admitted that they are being represented in the respective courts either by the counsel engaged by them or by counsel provided by the respective District Legal Services Authorities, where ever their cases are pending.
To gauge the effectiveness of the VC facility available in the Central Jail, the Chief Justice directed the jail authorities to connect with the District Court of Srinagar and