H.S.BEDI, J. - (1.) THE petitioners are presently detained in Model Jail, Chandigarh, in pursuance of the order of this Court made on 27th April, 1994 in Criminal Writ Petition No. 240 of 1994. In this petition they have prayed that their trial which is going to be held by the Designated Court at Hoshiarpur should be transferred to the Designated Court at Chandigarh, as they fear that in case they are taken to Hoshiarpur, they will suffer physical harm at the hands of the Punjab Police along the way.
(2.) THE facts of the case have been taken from the present petition as also from the judgement rendered in the aforesaid case. It appears from the averments that the petitioners, who are husband and wife, were illegally detained in the District Jail at Patiala. As they had been meted out cruel treatment at the hands of the Punjab Police, they sought their transfer from the Jail at Patiala to the one at Chandigarh. Two of the points highlighted in Criminal Writ Petition No. 240 of 1994 were that the respondents -herein, i.e. the State Authorities had ill treated petitioner No. 2 to such an extent that she had aborted her pregnancy and that they apprehended serious injury at their hands in case they were allowed to be removed from the jail premises for remand etc. On April 14, 1994,A.S. Nehra, J. made the following interim order : "Superintendent, Central Jail, Patiala, is directed to keep Kanwar Singh, his wife Kulbir Kaur and their son, Ranbir Singh in a common cell. The respondents are further directed not to remove the above detenus from Central Jail, Patiala, for the purpose of remand in this case or any other case without the permission of this Court." Criminal Writ Petition No. 240 of 1994 was ultimately disposed of on 27th April, 1994 with the following observations/directions : - "Coming now to the merits of the case, it is not disputed that there was an abortion of under trial Kulbir Kaur and her three month old pregnancy was terminated. There is version and counter version to the reasons leading to the termination of pregnancy. It is difficult for this Court on the basis of scanty evidence that is available to give an opinion one way or the other but the fact that it is under detention that there was abortion of three months' pregnancy on the lady Kulbir Kaur guides the judicial conscious of this Court to permit the genuine prayers and which prayers are such that cannot possibly cause any harm to the State. This course has been adopted by this Court on the basis of well known maxim that "Justice must not be only done." If there is even half the truth in the allegations made by the petitioner, it will be a traversity of justice to deny the reliefs of kind that have been asked for in the writ petition i.e. to transfer the under trials to Chandigarh jail and to examine the lady Kulbir Kaur by a team of doctors of P.G.I., Chandigarh. In totality of circumstances, thus, this Court orders that : a) Under -trials, Kanwar Singh, his wife Kulbir Kaur and their son, Ranbir Singh, be shifted to Burail Jail, Chandigarh, forthwith; b) They all be lodged in one cell as the rule relied upon by the State to keep them in separate cells, as has been reproduced above, is wholly inapplicable where male and female prisoner happen to be husband and wife and particularly when the wife is bed ridden and requires attention; c) Interim orders passed by AS. Nehra, J. on April 14, 1994, directing the respondents not to remove the above named three persons from Jail for remand purposes in connection with the case under which they are detained or any other case without prior permission of this Court, is made absolute.
(3.) THE Chandigarh Police only would bring the under trials from Patiala Jail to Burail Jail, Chandigarh. This prayer asked for during the course of arguments, has not been opposed by Mr. Aggarwal, learned Additional A.G., Punjab. This petition is disposed of accordingly. There shall, however, be no order as to costs.";