The conditions of poet Varavara Rao’s detention are “cruel, inhuman, and degrading”, senior lawyer Indira Jaising told the Bombay High Court on Wednesday, and urged it to exercise its jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution to release him from prison. Rao, an octogenarian poet-activist, is an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case and is lodged in Taloja prison in Navi Mumbai as an undertrial. However, he is currently admitted to the Nanavati Hospital in Mumbai. 

Jaising is the counsel for Rao’s wife Hemlatha in a writ petition filed last year by the latter, alleging the breach of Rao’s fundamental right to life due to his continued incarceration without adequate medical facilities. Jaising told a bench of Justices S S Shinde and Manish Pitale on Wednesday that Rao’s right to dignity and health were being breached due to his detention and that the court must exercise its jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution to release him from prison. “I am submitting that there is violation of right to life and dignity...The conditions of his (Rao’s) detention are cruel, inhuman and degrading,” Jaising said.