HC criticizes Tamil Nadu Prison Rules for withholding prisoners' wages

The Madras High Court Friday held Rule 481 of the Tamil Nadu Prison Rules unconstitutional as it stated 50 per cent of wages earned by prisoners shall be deducted for their upkeep. Partly allowing a PIL, a division bench of the court's Madurai bench, comprising Justices K K Sasidharan and G R Swaminathan, said admittedly the prisoners were not paid the wages as prescribed in the Minimum Wages Act.

Therefore making a substantial deduction from the wages prescribed violated the constitution and hence unreasonable, the bench said. The judges, however, said it was open to the government to provide for a lesser and reasonable percentage of deduction which would be in accordance with the law laid down by the Supreme Court.

The judges said making a substantial deduction from the wages prescribed under prison rules ran counter to the direction laid down by the apex court. The supreme court had also held that the government could not deduct any substantial portion from the wages of the prisoners. It could only make an only reasonable deduction.

In the case of prisoners in Tamil Nadu, the work is extracted from them without reasonable wages and making a substantial deduction from their wages is not reasonable. "It amounted to begar (forced labour)," the judges said.

However, the judges rejected the plea by K R Raja seeking a direction to declare as illegal a section under the rules providing for20 per cent of the wages to be credited in the prison fund to be paid to victims affected by the criminal activity of the prisoners. The judges said the provision for deduction from prisoners wages for the purpose of compensating the victims cannot be questioned since it was made only pursuant to and in terms of the direction given by the Supreme Court.

"We are of the view that apportioning one-fifth of the prisoners' wages for crediting to the victims' compensation fund cannot be said to be unreasonable," the court said. The state government advocate submitted that amenities provided to prisoners came to Rs 153 per day, though 50 per cent of the wages deducted for the upkeep of the prisoners came to Rs 100, Rs 90 and Rs 80 for skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled prisoners respectively.

(With inputs from agencies.)