The Supreme Court has taken suo motu cognisance of the delay shown on the part of the authorities to release people from jail even after getting bail from the courts.
A Bench of Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana, Justices L. Nageswara Rao and A.S. Bopanna is scheduled to hear on Friday the suo motu registered case, ‘In Re: Delay in release of convicts after grant of bail’, on the problem which affects the fundamental right of personal liberty.
Recently 13 prisoners in Agra Jail, who suffered imprisonment for up to two decades despite the Juvenile Justice Board declaring them ‘juveniles’ at the time of commission of their crimes, were granted bail by the Supreme Court on July 8, but only released by the prison authorities after a delay of four days.
Pinjra Tod activists Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal and Jamia Milia Islamia student Asif Iqbal Tanha walked out of Tihar Jail nearly two days after the Delhi High Court granted them bail.
The Supreme Court has made concerted moves in recent months to de-congest prisons amid the pandemic.
In May, a Bench, led by Chief Justice Ramana, had ordered the police to take a leaf from the top court’s judgment in the Arnesh Kumar case and limit arrests during the pandemic to prevent over-crowding in jails; especially not to order detention in a mechanical manner in cases involving punishment of less or up to seven years of imprisonment.
It had further ordered special committees, or ‘High-Powered Committees’, to be constituted in most States and Union Territories to screen prisoners and release them on interim bail.
In addition to these fresh releases, the court had said that prisoners who were released on interim bail during the 2020 surge should be freed again “forthwith”.
