The state government on Tuesday informed the Bombay high court that it had revised the wages of convicts in its jail according to a government resolution (GR) of September 6.
“Now prisons in Maharashtra are the highest paying in the country along with those in Delhi,” pubic prosecutor PA Pol said.
The GR was submitted during the hearing of a petition filed by Hitesh Shah and Wilson Castellino, jail inmates who had petitioned the court to direct the state government to increase the wages paid to the prison inmates who
work as skilled and unskilled workers.
The convicts in jail were being paid according to rates fixed in November 1999. According to those rates, skilled workers earned Rs25.50 per day, semi-skilled workers earned Rs17, while unskilled workers got Rs12.75. Shah’s petition stated that the pay had not increased for over 10 years, which was contrary to the Supreme Court’s direction asking all state governments to revise prisoner wages every decade. Shah contended that this violated the Minimum Wages Act (MWA), 1948.
As per the new GR that was submitted to a division bench of justices AM Khanwilkar and UD Salvi, the wages of skilled workers have been revised to Rs40, those for semi-skilled workers and unskilled workers have almost been doubled with each getting Rs35 and Rs25 respectively for a day’s work. Pol, however, clarified that prison inmates were not covered by the MWA.
Although the court disposed of the petition filed by Shah and Castellino, another petition filed by Sumit Giri, also am inmate, is pending before the court. Giri in his petition has sought better conditions for living, more nutritious diet, and the removal of the unjustified uniform code.
His petition state that there are 900 convicts working in the state prisons and they generate a turnover of Rs6 crore a year. The court has given the state government three weeks to reply to the petition.
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