Direct jail authorities to give data on undertrials in prison due to non-fulfilment of bail conditions: Supreme Court to States

The Supreme Court of India on Tuesday ordered all the States to issue directions to jail authorities to provide data on undertrials languishing behind bars due to non-fulfilment of bail conditions [In Re: Policy Strategy for Grant of Bail]..The Bench of Justices SK Kaul and Abhay S Oka called for such data to be represented in a chart within 15 days. The National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) was directed to render all legal assistance needed."We thus call upon all the State Governments to issue directions to the jail authorities to submit the details of such cases in a chart form indicating (a) the name of the under trial, (b) the offence charged, (c) the date when the bail was granted and (d) the conditions of bail which have not been met and how long that period from the date of the bail order till now. The State will ensure that these details are made available by the jail authorities to them within a period of 15 days from today and forward the data to NALSA within one week," the Court ordered..The Court also pointed that Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) is undertaking a similar exercise in Maharashtra, and therefore, the institute's assistance may also be taken..With respect to E-prison modules, the Court noted that the E-prison system is functioning in all jails in Karnataka. However, legal aid is not yet accessible through this initiative, as the portal is yet to be to be hosted. Amicus Curiae Gaurav Agarwal suggested this be implemented across the country with help of State Legal Service Authorities."The suggestion was that the said legal module be enabled to facilitate the categorising of prisoners receiving legal aid", the Court observed while giving two months time for implementation.The Court further directed NALSA and the Union Home Ministry to explore how premature release for life sentences cases can be included in the e-prisons system for periodic review without delay..The Court also appreciated the three Amici, advocates Gaurav Agarwal, Devansh Mohta and Liz Mathew, for doing good work."All three Amici have done a great job, must be complemented. You will have the blessings of many prisoners", Justice Kaul remarked. .The Court was hearing a batch of petitions - three relating to bail pleas of individual petitioners (arising out of orders of the Allahabad and Chattisgarh High Courts); and a suo motu public interest litigation (PIL) that the top court initiated to devise a policy strategy for granting bail in cases where appeals of trial court convictions have been long pending..One of the appellants in the instant case had moved the top court earlier this year after his criminal appeal from 2012 was kept pending by the Allahabad High Court even as his bail was rejected in 2019.In an order passed in March, the Bench expressed anguished at the High Court's conduct in the appeal, and stated that is was "of the view that the bail should have been for the asking and the impugned order is completely unsustainable."The top court was told during that hearing that there are similar cases of incarceration of over 16 years pending consideration even for bail before the High Court's Lucknow Bench. Further, there was no Bench to hear criminal matters for the last 25 days, the Court was told. The top court responded by observing,"This is a disturbing state of affairs, more so as we have been seized with the issue of the pendency of bail matters before the High Court of Allahabad and the Lucknow Bench and had even issued directions in this behalf for expediting the same in Saudan Singh Vs. State of Uttar Pradesh (Crl. Appeal No.308/ 2022) dated 25th February, 2022.".On an earlier occasion, the top court was informed by Agarwal that six High Courts had filed affidavits stating that the exercise of identifying life convicts was being undertaken.The Bench had then emphasised that the aim of the exercise was to identify cases that are fit for grant of bail or remission for those who have been behind bars for a long period of time..The Supreme Court had, in earlier orders in the same matter, laid out norms towards disposing of all such bail and appeal pleas involving a single offence in one go, and enlarging the accused on bail unless there are special circumstances for not doing so.Similar directions were passed towards considering remission of sentences for those in jail for over 14 years, and it was made clear that such cases can be dealt with by vacation benches..[Read order].Prisoners who have spent 10+ years in jail, have long pending appeals, should be released on bail: Supreme Court to High Courts