Plea to deposit 75 per cent of prisoners’ earning in bank accounts

Petitioner Raja of Madurai, in his petition, had stated that more than 5,000 prisoners are in various prisons across the state and they are paid inside the prison based on their work.

The prisoners are divided into three categories based on the work they do and are paid according to their skill level.

Skilled workers are paid Rs100 a day, semi-skilled are paid Rs 80 a day and unskilled workers are paid Rs 60 a day.

Most of the prisoners are convicts were sole breadwinners in their family. Their earnings inside the prison are sent to the family for their survival. At present, only 30 percentage of the salary is deposited in the bank accounts of the prisoner where as in Kerala 100 percentage of the prisoners’ salary is deposited in the bank accounts. So, the court should direct the state government to deposit 75 percentage of their earnings in their bank accounts, prayed the petitioner.

When the petition was heard, Judges KK Sasidharan and GR Swaminathan had sent notice to Secretary of State Home Department and ADGP of Prisons Department to file counter affidavit in the case and adjourned the case to August 28.