Court directs UP government to submit details of undertrial prisoners
Warning of a blanket bail order, the Supreme Court has pulled up the Uttar Pradesh government for not taking steps to release undertrial prisoners who have been in jail for more than 10 years despite the apex court’s order.
The court also strongly reprimanded the Allahabad High Court for not deciding the bail applications expeditiously.
A bench of Justices SK Kaul and M M Sundaresh said yesterday that the state government and the high court are “not being sensitive” and said it is ready to “bear the burden” and decide the matters on its own. The court warned that it would “pass a comprehensive order granting bail”.
The harsh comments came as the court was hearing the bail plea of Suleiman, an undertrial prisoner who has been in jail for 12 years now. He moved the apex court after no bench of the High Court was available to hear his appeal.
In his petition, he has said that many undertrial prisoners are in jail for more than 15 years without bail.
The top court said, “Give bail to undertrials, otherwise we will. If you can’t handle it, we will. The problem is with both the High Court and the state. You put these people behind bars indefinitely. Can’t put it.” The court said, observing that 853 undertrials are in state jails for more than 10 years.
The court has now directed the Uttar Pradesh government to submit the details of these undertrial prisoners within two weeks. The next hearing of the case will be on August 17.
The court referred to a report filed by the senior registrar of the High Court on persons imprisoned for more than 15 years and between 10 and 14 years. “It appears that 62 bail applications are yet to be disposed of and are to be listed in the next 2-3 weeks. During the period from April 22, 2022 to July 17, 2022, 232 fresh bail petitions have been filed, Where there is no bail. Applied earlier,” it said.
The Supreme Court on May 9 said that all one-time offenders who have been in jail for more than 10 years should be granted bail and asked the Allahabad High Court to adjudicate their petitions expeditiously. “After laying down the rules, the disposal of these applications should not take weeks,” it added.