Student here:- Thank you means quite a lot. I feel the life of convicts (specially the affect it has on their families) is a very neglected part of our legal system. Each case is unique where we do not know all the facts so like my mentor says we should leave the judgement to the judges and do our work the best we can. My project was on prisoner requested transfer for convicts which covered 150 male inmates and 50 female inmates across the country. Most of them only had one reason to transfer, so they could be near their family and the minority requested to be transferred for operational reasons (for conditions). A surprising finding was that inmates are willing to go to a worse jail in terms of facilities just to be near their families.

I wish the OP good luck and hope she reunites with her mom soon again.

I second this opinion. As a law student, the qualities you have demonstrated are phenomenal. Your responses are sharp, asks the right questions and explicitly lays bare the presumptions in coming to the conclusions. All done without an iota of judgement.

Kudos to you. I wish you all the best in life. Please keep doing what you are doing even you feel that it gets tough to be yourself.

To the above student,

As an experienced corporate lawyer, I wanted to appreciate your responses. They do not judge. You have not asked a single probing question to the OP. You empathize. You keep mentioning that you are still a law student and not a licensed lawyer. And yet you have shared a lot and it seems you did your project with a lot of dedication and sincerity. You have taken time out and answered thinking through various possible scenarios. I have a strong feeling once you do get that license, you will do really well. Even otherwise, keeping the legalese aside, just from the other qualities, I am sure you will do good wherever you choose to be - wherever life takes you - and I wish you the best! I just wanted to really appreciate you!!!!!

Ah(the student here). I am sorry that you are in this situation. In this case its definitely worth applying for .

Sunaria Jail in Rohtak usually accepts men transfers, but that reminds me of Jhajjar jail that does accept women which is nearby. But facilities wise (well as good as it can get in an Indian jail), her best option is going to be either Jaipur or Tihar. Jhajjar jail is quite dirty, poorly facilitated (I have heard from an ex-inmate herself- you have no fan in summer and limited medical stuff ) and far worse than Jaipur (which I have visited myself). Odds are low for Tihar so my personal recommendation to your mother for a successful transfer is Jaipur.

I will give you some advice on the things that is going to affect the approval of her transfer. Firstly, if she is convicted she needs to admit guilt and remorse, judges will immediately reject this if they find a lack of that specially if there is no pending appeal. As a murder convict , most people are sentenced to RI Life imprisonment unless they have a clear medical condition- so with her in her early 50s she is still young enough to be expected to work rigourously by the courts (i know generallyy this doesnt happen as much in practice but is taken into consideration) until retirement age (which is seen as 60). That means everything from stitching to cleaning etc. Prison wardens will be asked of her behaviour and her work ethic, and if thats not in her favour it is unlikley the jail she is transferring to will accept her. Another thing to note is that she needs to have no disiciplinary infractions, that could mean fights, stolen goods or contraband possession that may have resulted in visitation rights revoked or her landing in solitary. If this is all ok, and she is a well behaved prisoner then I do not see why your petition will be declined.

Finally, we are assuming she does not have any pending charges , pending appeals , police investigations or even medical treatments.

Again, I am still an anonymous law student and not a proper licensed lawyer yet so this completely unsolicited not official advice and you should not base your decisions solely on this post - best for you to get proper official legal advice. In Delhi, Megha Jha is a good person to talk to, as she understands female issues and victims of abuse committing crimes (from what I can infer of the situation without pushing it). Sadly, this will cost you some money, but if it means you can stay with your mom near you then its worth it. I do have hats off to you in that a lot of people abandon prisoners, specially women. So it is good to see you stand up for her.

This is why LI is still useful!
@OP: You may also get in touch with Anoop Surendranath from NLUD if you need any pro bono legal assistance about this matter. Or anyone who was part of the Swadhinota Project at NUJS Kolkata.

I am a law student who has done a project on precisely this topic (but for both men and women). Yes, it is possible but only if it is a long enough sentence to help warrant that- it can take upto 5 years for actual transfer to happen. If it is life imprisonment or a 7year+ punishment, then most likely possible but if she only has 3-4 years she is better of in Nagpur. If it is 7 year+ , then after you file a request, there are lots of issues for prisons to consider and hte biggest delayer is the accomodation in the prison she wants to serve her sentence. Tihar is usually very oversubscribed, and centre is keen to transfer prisoners from there. Rohini or Mandoli will be a better bet if in Delhi, but you can get it done in 3 years if you are willing to compromise to somewhere nearer but not in Delhi. My personal recommendation would be Ambala or Jaipur central jail which are both nearly 5 hrs drive/3 hr train away so you can still see here twice a month easily. Jaipur central jail is specially known for that, a bit like Thane jail for anyone who has moved to Mumbai/Pune.

With regards to practiality, talk to your lawyer about the whole process- the main challenge will be the sentence (unless by SC) to be transferred to the court of where you want it to be transferred but usually its a formality. If it is a short travel (say 5 hr drive) then police tend to drive them by road but in your case more likley to be an overnight train ride. Most prisoners are escorted for night trains. It wont be a pleasant ride for her, because she will most likely will have to sleep under heavy police escort and most likely even tied with a rope to one of the escort officers (who will be a woman!). Sorry about your situation.

Hi,

My mom (aged 51) has been in jail for the past few years and a release date is a long away . She is in Nagpur Jail, and I (24F) recently got married into a family in Delhi. She has no other family (her brother lives in US and my dad has divorced her soon after her arrest) so my departure to Delhi means she no longer has anyone back in Nagpur.

I was told it might be possible for her to transfer to Tihar in Delhi. But was is the process for that? Is there a legally provision of that? If so what is the practicality of that and how is the logistics (Police escorted Train travel or bus travel etc?).