Prisoners injured while working in jail entitled to compensation, says Delhi HC

“The criminal law system which extends to convicting a person and sending him to jail for serving the sentence has to remain responsive and sensitive while such prisoners as convicts are serving their sentences and ensure that their right to dignity and life is not taken away. A prisoner cannot be made to suffer due to the inadequacy of policies that have failed to consider a particular eventuality as is in the present case…The justice for inmates who have suffered disability due to an injury suffered which is work-related in the prison, has a fundamental right to get justice and compensation as per law,” the court said.

The court issued guidelines to quantify and award compensation to prisoners who suffer amputation or other life-threatening injuries while working in prisons. According to these guidelines, if a convict suffers amputation or life threatening injury while working, the jail superintendent will be duty-bound to inform the same to the jail inspecting judge concerned within 24 hours.

A three-member committee consisting of the director-general (prisons), medical superintendent of a government hospital and the Delhi State Legal Services Authority (DSLSA) secretary of the district from where the convict has been sentenced will be constituted. The committee will assess and quantify the compensation to be paid after examining the opinion of a board of doctors to be constituted at their request by the treating hospital.

An interim compensation will be provided to such victims in case of amputation or life-threatening injury, the court underscored. “This arrangement will remain in place until necessary guidelines in this regard are formulated, or rules are made or amended in this regard or any amendment is brought in the Prison Act 1894 by the wisdom of the Parliament of India or in Delhi Prisons Act 2000 to deal with such a situation,” the order said after noting that neither the Delhi Prisons Act of 2000 nor the Delhi Prison Rules of 2018 contain provisions for the loss of wages of a convict rendered incapable of working after an accident or after undergoing an amputation.

The court was hearing the case of Tihar inmate Ved Yadav, imprisoned to life for murder, who sought compensation for amputation of three fingers while working in the paper factory at the jail in 2021. He sought a direction to the state to “provide functional prosthesis for regular working of the amputated fingers of right hand at state’s expense” in a private hospital and to grant compensation for the loss suffered by him.

The director-general (prisons) had awarded Rs 50,000 as compensation to Yadav and claimed that the amount had already been credited to his prison bank account. However, the state of Delhi changed its stance before the court and said the compensation should be treated as interim compensation and that the issue would be examined by the DSLSA under the victim compensation scheme.

The court then directed the jail authorities to decide Yadav’s claim for enhanced compensation and for providing functional prosthesis as per the guidelines within three months.

The court also examined whether an inmate working in the jail can be considered an employee of the jail. It said that since convicts do not voluntarily enter into an agreement or contract to work, there is no employer-employee relationship between the inmate and prison authorities.

The court observed that inmates are forced to work by a statutory mandate or by a judicial direction and held that “in such circumstances, for work-related injuries, they should be provided protection and remedies as the Constitution vision does not permit that any citizen should be rendered remedy-less in case of the commission of an offence or infringement of a fundamental right or availing of compensation for injuries, even as a prisoner”.