(1) No non-habitual prisoner shall be employed as a convict officer in charge of habitual prisoners, unless he be a man of means and status, who has been sentenced to imprisonment for a serious crime against the person committed in a passion and who, but for this lapse, is a respectable member of society, and who is likely through his position of responsibility over habituals not to be contaminated.
(2) No convict officer shall, on any pretext, strike a prisoner except in self-defence or in defence of a jail officer or in the repression of a disturbance in which case no more than necessary force shall be used, or use any violence except when absolutely necessary.
(3) Any convict officer proved to have infringed this rule shall be permanently degraded to the position of an ordinary convict.
(4) Any convict officer detected in introducing or conniving at the introduction of prohibited articles shall be prosecuted before the Judicial Magistrate under section 42 of thePrisoners’ Act, 1894 (Central Act No. 9 of 1984), and whenever guilty of willfully or negligently permitting a prisoner to escape, he shall invariably be prosecuted under sections 222 and 223 of the Indian Penal Code 1860 (Central Act No 45 of 1860) and Convict Officers shall bound to do all in their power to prevent escapes.
(5) A convict overseer shall be exempted from hard labour, except as a punishment.
573 राजस्ााू राज-पत्र दिसम् बर 12 2022 भाग 4 (ग)