A special NIA court has said that the jail administration cannot refuse to accept many books sent to prisoners, however, it must ensure that the material given in the book is not objectionable.
In a detailed order by a special court, hearing the case of activist Sudha Bhardwaj, the activist has been arrested in the Elgar Parishad case, who had asked to provide five books a month in Biukala Mahila Jail.
The order said that the jail superintendent has the right to take the right decision. If they find that there is some offensive or violent or obscene material in the book, then they can reject the prayer, it comes under their authority. The jail superintendent is expected to take a decision based on the contents of the book. But they cannot refuse to accept the book.
A petition was filed by Bhardwaj along with two co-accused activist Gautam Navlakha and Delhi University associate professor Hany Babu had filed separate pleas before the court stating that as writers, academicians, they have spent a lifetime reading, studying books and texts and the denial of books cannot be arbitrary.
On the applications filed by Navlakha and Babu, the court said that their relatives “may approach the prison authority for delivery of books to them”. Moreover, the court said that the jail administration has done nothing unjust by rejecting the parcel in terms of security. Because the parcels themselves were not delivered to the prison by the acquaintances or lawyers of the prisoners.
The special court considered a previous judgment of the Bombay High Court dating back to 1963 in a case involving trade unionist and former Union minister George Fernandes.
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