The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has directed the State government to ascertain the feasibility of conducting specialised medical camps in prisons so that the waiting time for providing escorts and expenditure incurred in taking prisoners to speciality hospitals can be avoided to a great extent and the prison inmates are extended treatment sans delay.The court was hearing the petition filed by a woman from Tirunelveli district. Alleging that timely and adequate medical treatment was not provided to her husband, a life convict lodged in Palayamkottai Central Prison, the petitioner sought a direction to the authorities to admit her husband to Tirunelveli Government Medical College Hospital and provide him proper medical treatment based on the representation made by her. The petitioner said he was lodged in the Central Prison since 2017 and he has been suffering from serious health issues.A Division Bench of Justices A.D. Jagadish Chandira and R. Poornima took note of the report submitted by the Director General of Police and said from the report, it is quite alarming to notice that totally, there are 10,581 prisoners in various prisons across the State and more particularly, 7,812 prisoners under the Green Category were awaiting treatment in Chennai alone on account of non-availability of escorts.Given the seriousness of the issue, especially, the health of prisoners which was of paramount importance, the whopping expenditure incurred in the matter of providing escort and also the practical difficulties faced by the prison and the police authorities in this regard, the court cannot turn Nelson’s eye to the same, the judges said.The court directed the Director General of Prisons and Correctional Services and the Director General of Police to get suggestions after consulting the authorised officer in the Medical Department. The court posted the matter for hearing to July 20. Published - July 09, 2026 08:14 pm IST