‘We’re reduced to municipal commissioners’: Delhi HC raps PWD over unhygienic conditions at Mandoli Jail

Dahiya, a murder convict who has served over 13 years behind bars, had highlighted that the drainage in jail 2 at the Mandoli prison has been blocked since March 2025, resulting in the accumulation of wastewater and sewage overflow on the premises where inmates are housed.

CJ Upadhyaya, addressing the PWD, orally asked, “Why did you wake up now? Why did you not attend to this problem… Since 2024 the construction is there and you have been receiving letters (from jail authorities) since March… Can you understand the problem that is being faced?… We have been reduced to municipal commissioners.

The prison authorities, on their part, informed the court that the jail’s sewer lines were laid in 1984-85 and “being very old…the drainage system often remains choked/blocked, which is cleared by the jail administration by a supersucker machine through PWD authorities.”

It was further submitted that a tender was issued for new sewer lines and the same was laid down in 2024, but the contractor did not connect it with the main sewer line, leaving the work incomplete. The prison authorities further submitted that despite multiple communications to the PWD to resolve the issue, there has been “no action and it was only after the high court’s directions that the department started clearing the sewer lines on August 17.

The court granted the PWD four weeks’ time to connect the sewer to the main line after the department informed it that tender for the work has been finalised and said that in the meantime, they will deploy more super sucker machines for the cleaning work.