Supreme Court dismisses Medha Patkar plea challenging Maharashtra HPC decision denying interim bail to prisoners charged under special Acts

The Supreme Court today refused to interfere with the Maharashtra High Powered Committee's (HPC) decision to not release prisoners charged under special Acts on interim bail in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic..On September 14, the Supreme Court had reserved orders in the plea filed by Medha Patkar and her organization, National Alliance of People's Movements, along with social activist Meera Sadanand Kamath. The petitions sought interim release of prisoners charged under special Acts from jails in Maharashtra amid the pandemic..The Bench of Chief Justice of India SA Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian heard the plea after the Bombay High Court declined to entertain this prayer..The Apex Court had previously allowed the Maharashtra High Powered Committee to reconsider its earlier decision to only allow the release of a set of prisoners in view of the on-ground situation..Supreme Court reserves order in plea seeking interim release of prisoners charged under Special Acts in Maharashtra amid COVID-19.On August 5, the High Court had upheld the HPC's classification of prisoners who were to be released on emergency parole in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak..While refusing to interfere with the order of the Bombay High Court, the Bench stated,"What has weighed with the HPC is that such enactments provide for additional restrictions on grant of bail in addition to those under the Criminal Procedure Code."Thus, the Court held,."The said categorisation in our view cannot be considered as unreasonable since at the first instance, based on the categorisation made a consideration is required by the Court for grant of interim bail if such undertrial/convicted person is seeking bail purely on taking benefit of the notification issued pursuant to such decision taken by the HPC. The exclusion made has a reasonable basis and cannot be termed arbitrary."Supreme Court.Substantiating its decision to not interfere with the decision of the High Powered Committee, the Apex Court held,"What has been curtailed by the HPC by excluding certain categories is only with a view to deny the benefit to certain category of jail inmates who are charged with serious offences which has an adverse effect on the society at large though the length of the punishment that can be imposed may be lesser.".The verdict states that the prisoners charged under the special enactments or convicted for more than 7 years can still apply for bail in accordance with law and "cannot treat the pandemic as fortuitous circumstance to secure bail to which they were otherwise not entitled to in law by claiming equal treatment." The Court further held,"All that the HPC has denied them is the benefit of seeking interim bail only on the ground that they are entitled to be released on bail in view of the Covid19 situation and no other legal right has been denied.".The Bench further stated that a cause of grievance would only arise if a prisoner is discriminated by the HPC "as against the prisoner in the same category for which the benefit has been provided by the categorisation made by the HPC.".The Court has, however, held that it would still be open for the petitioners to obtain necessary statistics and if any modification of the guidelines is necessary in future, "they will be at liberty to submit an appropriate representation to the HPC which would in that circumstance look into the same and arrive at a conclusion at its discretion depending on the need or otherwise to modify its guidelines"..Appearing for the petitioners, Advocate SB Talekar submitted that almost 2,500 prisoners are infected with COVID-19, and that more than 10 prisoners are dying every day.CJI Bobde stated that the Court will pass a detailed and reasoned order in response to this at a later time..The HPC had directed that all persons who are accused or convicted of offences punishable with imprisonment of 7 years or less shall be released on interim bail or emergency parole as the case may be.However, it was decided that these directions would not apply to prisoners who are accused of serious economic offences or offences under the special Acts.These decisions of the HPC were challenged before the Bombay High Court..About 50% of prisoners to be released to decongest Maharashtra Jails amid COVID-19: State High Powered Committee.The High Court had opined that the prisoners had no vested right to be released either on emergency parole or on interim bail, and that the classification made by the HPC did not violate any of the fundamental rights of the prisoners.The plea before the Supreme Court states that the High Court erroneously upheld not only the classification of the prisoners done by the HPC, but also the additional conditions/restrictions for allowing the temporary release of prisoners imposed by the HPC..The petitioners stated that out of 28,642 prisoners to be released, only 10,467 prisoners are released till date, due to the additional conditions imposed by the High Powered Committee.It was further averred that the applicable rules did earlier provide for emergency parole on the ground of serious illness, death of the nearest relative, or in case of a natural calamity such as house collapse, floods, fire, earthquake.Emergency parole was denied on the ground that these special Acts provide for additional restrictions on grant of bail, in addition to those under the Code of Criminal Procedure.The petitioners thus urged the Apex Court to reconsider the cases of 17,642 undertrial prisoners lodged in jails of Maharashtra..(Read judgment)