New
Delhi:
After taking suo motu cognisance of the delay in releasing people granted bail,
the Supreme Court on Friday asked state governments to apprise it as to how
many prisons in their territory have internet connections and by when jails
will be equipped with facilities to ensure the expeditious release of
prisoners.
A
three-judge bench of the top court, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI)
Nuthalapati Venkata Ramana, said it will soon devise a secure electronic
transmission mechanism of its orders on bail so that it reaches the jail
authorities in minimum time to facilitate the expeditious release of inmates
who have been granted bail in a case.
The
court said that in the internet era, it seems that the jail authorities are
relying on “ancient modes” of communication through “pigeons”.
The
bench also asked its Secretary-General to consult Amicus Curiae (Friend of the
court) senior lawyer, Dushyant Dave and Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta for
trying to make some immediate arrangement of secure direct electronic mode of
communication from Supreme Court to jails.
The
top court said that is not clear yet whether the High Powered Committees
(HPCs), constituted in its direction, have considered the age, comorbidity and
other conditions of prisoners in deciding their release during the pandemic to
prevent the spread of Covid among inmates.
The
Supreme Court had taken suo motu cognizance of delay in releasing convicts by
prison authorities even after being granted bail by courts on Thursday.
On
July 8, the top court had granted interim bail to 13 convicted prisoners,
keeping in view the fact that they were declared as juveniles by the Juvenile
Justice Board (JJB) at the time of the commission of the offence and already
served 14 years jail sentence and are currently lodged in Agra Central Jail in
Uttar Pradesh, on personal bond.
But
the Uttar Pradesh authorities, however, delayed the release of these prisoners,
who were released after four days. The prison authorities stated that they did
not receive the certified copy of the order by post.
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