PIL filed against incompletion of district jail in Longleng

Dimapur, Aug. 10 (EMN): A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed with the Gauhati High Court, Kohima Bench, over non completion of Longleng District Jail.

The PIL was filed through the assistance of the Nagaland State Legal Services Authority (NSLSA) panel lawyer, it was informed.

The PIL has prayed for “issuance of appropriate order or direction directing the respondents to complete the construction of the district jail at Longleng for which the work orders were issued in 2006 and also to constitute an enquiry committee under the supervision of this Court for enquiry/investigation into the utilisation or mis-utilisation of funds sanctioned for construction of the jail,” stated an update from NSLSA on Tuesday

The PIL claimed that since February 2, 2006, numerous work orders were awarded to two private parties by the state government for construction of Longleng District Jail.

It stated that despite enormous amount of public money running into crores of rupees being withdrawn for the project, construction work has not been completed till date, resulting in violation of prisoners’ rights, denial of speedy trial and various inconveniences to the justice delivery system.

It also stated that representation had failed to garner any positive response from the authorities.

It also mentioned that Longleng is the only district in the state that does not have a jail till date, because of which undertrial prisoners (UTPs) and convicts are lodged in Mokokchung District Jail, which takes two to three hours to traverse between the district headquarters.

The first work order was sanctioned on February 2, 2006, and till date, more than 20 orders have been sanctioned to the parties, it said.

A division bench of the Court of Justice Songkhupchung Serto and Justice S Hukato Swu, during its first hearing of the matter on August 4, listed the matter again after five weeks.

During the time period, the respondents including state government authorities have been asked to take cognisance of the notice. As for the private parties who were made respondents to the case, the petitioners in this regard were allowed to serve the notice through newspaper publication.

“They shall do so by publishing the notice in two local dailies for two consecutive days making the same returnable on or before 08.09.2021,”  the statement read.