New Delhi, March 3 (IANS) The Delhi High Court Wednesday summoned the state home secretary for failing to provide telephone facilities to inmates in Tihar Jail despite earlier orders.
A division bench of Justice Vikramjit Sen and Justice Manmohan Singh summoned the home secretary March 18 asking as to why the order of the court had not been implemented so far.

Another bench of the court had Nov 11 last year directed the government to give telephone facilities to inmates in Tihar Jail.

According to Delhi government’s proposal, first-time offenders will be allowed telephone facilities in their ward itself where they can make one call a week and other prisoners would be allowed this facility once in a fortnight.

The court was hearing a petition based on a letter from former Haryana top police officer R.K. Sharma, serving a life term for the murder of journalist Shivani Bhatnagar.

Sharma wrote asking for telephone facilities for inmates at the country’s largest prison, which houses over 11,000 prisoners.