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‘Time has now come’: Karnataka High Court to set guidelines for home food and bedding for under-trial prisoners

The counsel appearing for the accused in the Renukaswamy murder case provided details of similar orders passed on providing home-cooked food to prisoners, and claimed they have remained unchallenged by the Karnataka Government.

2 min readBengaluruUpdated: Jan 23, 2026 05:43 PM IST

The High Court stayed the trial court order in the case of Pavitra Gowda, Nagaraju R, and Lakshman M, who are co-accused in the Renukaswamy murder case along with actor Darshan. (Source: File)

The Karnataka High Court Friday indicated that it would frame guidelines for providing home-cooked food and bedding to under-trial prisoners lodged in jails across the state while hearing the government’s plea challenging orders passed by a trial court directing authorities to provide such food once a week to the accused in the Renukaswamy murder case.

On Tuesday, the High Court stayed the trial court order in the case of Pavitra Gowda, Nagaraju R, and Lakshman M, who are co-accused in the Renukaswamy murder case along with actor Darshan.

“We would lay down the law as to how home-cooked food and bed are to be given to a person (undertrial prisoner) under special circumstances. The time has now come that we have to lay down guidelines, and we will do it,” Justice M Nagaprasanna said.

Section 30 of Karnataka Prisons Act, 1963, provides for maintenance of certain prisoners from private sources, which says “civil prisoner or an unconvicted criminal prisoner shall be permitted to maintain himself and to purchase or receive from private sources at proper hours food, clothing, bedding or writing materials, books, newspapers or other necessaries, subject to examination and to such regulations as may be approved by the Inspector-General”.

Advocate Sunil Kumar, appearing for the Renukaswamy murder case accused, provided details of similar orders passed on providing home-cooked food to prisoners, and claimed they have remained unchallenged by the state government, saying it was only in their case that it was being challenged.

Following this, the court directed the state government to go through the material supplied by Kumar and place on record the Prison Manual and other necessary documents, which would assist it in framing the guidelines.

The court posted the matter for further hearing on February 2.

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Actor Darshan earlier moved a petition before the court seeking home-cooked food and bedding, and praying that guidelines be framed. However, he withdrew the plea without any orders.