The Bombay High Court was informed on Wednesday that the conditions of poet Varavara Rao’s detention were “cruel, inhuman, and degrading”, reported PTI. The 81-year-old is an accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, and has been lodged in the Taloja Prison in Mumbai.
The counsel of the poet’s wife, P Hemlatha, and senior lawyer Indira Jaising urged the court to exercise its jurisdiction under Article 226 (power of high courts to issue certain writs) of the Constitution.
“I am submitting that there is violation of right to life and dignity…The conditions of his [Rao’s] detention are cruel, inhuman and degrading,” Jaising said. “The right to health and dignity is a faucet, a fundamental right under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. The right to life and dignity is fundamental right under Article 21.”
The submissions were made before a bench of Justices SS Shinde and Manish Pitale. However, following Jaising’s submission, the court said that such…