Prisoners Have A Right To Their Medical Records Under Article 21: Bombay HC Observes While Hearing Sudha Bharadwaj's Plea

What Is The Case

● The Bombay High Court ruled on Friday that under Article 21 of the Constitution, prisoners have the right to obtain medical records, including information on tests and medicines provided to them

● Maaysha Singh v. State of Maharashtra & Anr

● Following the prison protocol, inmates are entitled to make a phone call with an authorised family member after any visit to the hospital, according to a bench of Justices SJ Kathawalla and SP Tavade.

● These orders were issued in response to a petition filed by Maaysha Singh, the daughter of a Bhima Koregaon violence suspect, and advocate Sudha Bharadwaj, who sought her mother's release from prison on medical grounds.

Details

● Bharadwaj is one of the suspects in the 2018 Elgar Parishad incident, which sparked violence in Bhima Koregaon the following day. Bharadwaj is currently being held at the Byculla Women's Prison in Mumbai.

● Bharadwaj was taken to a hospital outside the prison and is now undergoing care, according to Advocate Yug Chaudhry, after filing the current petition and after the order issued in the previous hearing.

● As a result, he decided not to pursue the second appeal for bail on medical grounds.

● As a result, the appeal was dismissed.

● Chaudhry said that he wanted to make two recommendations to the Courts for consideration in order to reduce the number of petitions filed in the High Court.

1. Inmates have the ability to access their own medical records. They should be given copies of the test results as well as the medications prescribed.
2. After a hospital visit, courts can make one phone call to the prisoner with an authorized family member or lawyer so that they can be consulted.

● The National Investigation Agency's Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh responded that although these recommendations were made at the discretion of the State, he had no objections to them except that permission should not be given for speaking to a lawyer.

● Jayesh P Yagnik, the Additional Public Prosecutor, said he agrees with the idea as long as prison procedures are followed.

● After hearing all of the arguments, the Court issued an order. It was expressly mentioned in the order that the petition's instructions should be applied to all detainees.

Court’s Observation

● According to the Bombay High Court, under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, prisoners have a right to their medical records, and prison authorities must supply the details upon request. The bench of Justices SJ Kathawalla and SP Tavade stated that medical records must include test results and medicines prescribed.

● The sixty-year-old has diabetes, hypertension, ischemic heart disease, and pulmonary tuberculosis history, according to Bharadwaj's daughter Maaysha Singh's petition, which invoked Article 226 of the Constitution.

● After Bharadwaj's three co-prisoners in Byculla tested positive, she approached the court. The court requested the State Government's new medical report on Bharadwaj last week.

● Sudha Bharadwaj, a sixty-year-old lawyer-activist who is on trial in the Bhima Koregaon Elgaar-Parishad Case, was seeking medical treatment and release from the court.

● The court ruled that after a hospital visit, Bharadwaj and other inmates should be allowed to call an authorised family member.

● "Article 21 gives inmates access to their medical records. As a result, all medical records, including tests performed and medications administered, should be made available to the inmate upon request. We will also go so far as to suggest that this should be done for each and every inmate."

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