Supreme Court has ordered a new mechanism to come up in every district of the country within a month to take care of such hapless persons
NEW DELHI : Poor will no longer languish in the Indian jails now for their inability to furnish bail as the Supreme Court has ordered a new mechanism which will come up in every district of the country within a month to take care of such hapless persons. The order came from the Social Justice Bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and U U Lalit, who expressed concern that 67 per cent of those lodged in the prisons in the country are undertrials who are too poor to get the bail. Directing the National Legal Services Authority to coordinate with the Home Ministry to take care of such hapless undertrials, the Bench ordered constitution of the undertrial review committee in every district and their first meeting on June 30 to review all such cases.
The Home Ministry had ordered constitution of these committees through an advisory to all states on January 17, 2013, but its implementation was tardy, prompting the Supreme Court to order their formation within a month.
“We find there are a large number of prisoners who are continuing in custody only because of their poverty. This is certainly not in the spirit of the law and poverty cannot be a ground for incarcerating a person,” the Court said.
Under the Code of Criminal Procedure’s Section 436A, an undertrial should be released on bail on personal bond if he has already spent in jail half of the maximum period of punishment for the offence for which he is charged with.
The Apex Court also asked the Home Ministry to study the software application developed by the Tihar Jails here for keeping track of the undertrials who have already completed half of the maximum punishment and circulate it to the states for replication in all jails in the country.
