Rights of prisoners and role of higher judiciary in humanizing Indian prisons: a critique.

The prison has remained an ignored area for long time. The rights of the prisoners have also remained neglected for a very long time. Though there were various cases dealt by the India’s higher judiciary relating to rights of prisoners yet the same has remained obscured as the mainstream media does not cover the news related to prisoners’ rights until some celebrity is involved. In this paper, it is attempted to analyze the rights of the prisoners as recognized by the international law. The paper also analyses the role played by Indian higher judiciary in humanizing the prisons through various case laws in the context of the rights available to prisoners. This paper makes an analysis of the role of India’s Higher Judiciary in making the prisons a place where a prisoner can be treated and made fit to re-enter the society after release to lead an honest life. There have been many areas of challenges wherein the Courts have contributed to its improvement through its decisions and guidelines [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]