New Delhi: Distressed at the case of a mentally ill undertrial languishing in Ambala Central Jail for the last 27 years, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has filed an application in the Punjab and Haryana High Court to assist it in a pending civil writ petition on the issue of such undertrial prisoners.

The decision of NHRC was taken while pursuing the case of a mentally ill patient Jai Singh, who has been in custody as an undertrial prisoner in Ambala Central Jail for the last 27 years.

The case of the undertrial had come to the notice of NHRC chairperson Justice A S Anand when he visited the Ambala Jail in October 2003.

Singh was admitted to the jail on September four, 1977, as an undertrial in a murder case and was on May nine, 1979, transferred to Amritsar Mental Hospital for treatment and thereafter never produced in the trial court.

A careful perusal of the various reports received from the State authorities in the case projected a distressing picture, the Commission said in a statement in New Delhi today (Sep 2, 2004).

The NHRC had in December, 2003 sought reports from the Superintendent of Amritsar Mental Hospital, the Superintendent of Ambala Central Jail, DIG, Ambala Range, and Additional Sessions Judge, Kurukshetra.

"It appears that Jai Singh has been reduced to a number and forgotten," the Commission noted.