Bombay HC orders costs recovered in two cases be spent on Taloja prison library

The Bombay High Court on Thursday said that following the hullabaloo over an Elgar Parishad case accused being denied a P G Wodehouse book it has ordered that costs recovered in two civil matters be spent for improving the library at the Taloja prisonA bench of Justices S B Shukre and G A Sanap told government lawyer Sangeeta Shinde who was present in the court for an unrelated case that it imposed costs of Rs 5000 and 10000 in two civil matters earlier in the day and this money will be spent on buying books for the Taloja prison libraryWe have said in our orders in these two matters that the cost paid by the parties will go to Taloja jail the bench saidShinde said she will convey the courts sentiments to the Maharashtra state prison authoritiesEarlier this week the bench had heard a plea by Navlakha seeking that he be placed under house custody instead of judicial custodyDuring the course of hearing on Monday his counsel Yug Chaudhry said Navlakhas family had sent him a book by English author and humorist P G Wodehouse but the jail authorities refused to hand it over to him saying it was a security threatOn Tuesday Shinde told the court that at that time owing to Covid19 security protocol no parcels from outside were permitted in the prisonOther books including Arabian Nights Ruskin Bond a book titled Ishwar Ka Chehra and another called Johannesburg Dreams were provided to him the government lawyer had saidJustice Shukre however had asked if any books by Wodehouse were provided to Navlakha and if the prison library had any books by Wodehouse in the first placeWhen Shinde said it didnt the bench asked if humour had been banished from the prison and directed her to furnish a list of books available in the Taloja prison libraryIf good books are not available in sufficient numbers in jails then something can be done by the bar and even the courtaccess to a good library is very important for inmates reformation the HC had saidShinde subsequently told the HC that the prison library has 2815 books including spiritual books and also some in UrduThe court had then commented that even the library at a secondary school was likely to have more booksNot all inmates read books was the government lawyers responseA court imposes costs which are akin to fines in cases where a party to a case misleads the court or wastes the courts time by filing frivolous cases or applications or does not comply with directionsSeveral accused in the 2018 Elgar ParishadMaoists links case are lodged at Taloja prison in Navi MumbaiIt has a capacity to accommodate 2124 inmates but by the Maharashtra governments own admission it is overcrowdedOn Thursday Shinde told the court she could not tell offhand the exact number of inmates at Taloja prison but she had earlier submitted the exact figure before the HCThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever