SC verdict on undertrials: Boost for govt bid to decongest prisons

Pradeep Thakur,TNN | Sep 6, 2014, 05.41 AM IST

NEW DELHI: The government's plan to decongest prisons and release undertrials languishing in jails for long got a boost on Friday with the apex court setting a deadline of two months, starting October 1, to free all undertrials who have served half of the maximum sentence prescribed for the offences they have been charged with. The Supreme Court has put the onus of release of all such prisoners on district judicial officials. 

TOI had reported in its edition dated September 1 that the home ministry, after consultation with the law ministry, had decided to send advisories to all state governments and high courts asking them to ensure implementation of Section 436A of the Criminal Procedure Code that mandates release of undertrials. Such advisories were sent to state governments and HCs earlier too but these directives were never followed. 

Section 436A of CrPC provides for release of all undertrials who have served half the maximum sentence prescribed for the offence for which they have been charged with. The benefit, however, is not applicable to undertrials charged with heinous crimes that prescribe death penalty. 

The home ministry has also drawn up a plan to regularly update and monitor the list of undertrials across all prisons in the country. A special software has been developed by National Informatics Centre (NIC) which will be shared with states to feed data of all undertrials on a weekly basis. This central database will be accessible to the home ministry and the Supreme Court which can review the status periodically. 

The Centre, with the help of states, will also set up review committees in each district to be headed by the district judge and have the district magistrate and the superintendent of police as its members. The panels will be asked to review the status of undertrial prisoners in their district every three months and ensure they are released and data is fed into the centralized databank monitored by the home ministry. 

It has been estimated that out of 3.81 lakh prisoners across the country, about 2.54 lakh, or two-thirds, are undertrials in various stages of their trial. 

As per the apex court order on Friday, district judicial authorities will have to ensure that all undertrials who fall in this category are released before December 2.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/SC-verdict-on-undertrials-Boost-for-govt-bid-to-decongest-prisons/articleshow/41828182.cms

SC order to release undertrials will come to aid of Muslim prisoners

Deeptiman Tiwary,TNN | Sep 6, 2014, 06.30 AM IST

Free undertrials who have completed half of maximum sentence: SC

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NEW DELHI: Muslim prisoners are likely to be the biggest beneficiaries of the government's decision to facilitate release of undertrials languishing in jails for long. This is because the rate of undertrial Muslim incarceration is almost twice that of Hindus. Calculated on the number of undertrials per lakh population (of people adhering to that particular religion), while the Hindu undertrial rate is 21.5, the Muslim rate is 38.81, suggesting more Muslims keep languishing in jails without a trial as compared to Hindus. 

Another fact pointing to this is that while 17% of the convict population in jails constitutes Muslims, in the undertrial category it is 21%. In the case of Hindus, the reverse is true -71.4% of convicts are Hindus but only 69.9% of un dertrials profess the faith. Similarly, Sikhs constitute 4% of undertrials and 4.9% of convicts while Christians make 3.5% and 4%, respectively . This clearly indicates that Muslims, who constitute just over 13% of India's population, are at a disadvantage as far as getting bail is concerned.

According to data com piled by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) for 2012, out of 3.8 lakh prisoners, 2.5 lakh are undertrials. Of these, 53,638 (21%) are Muslims. UP , Bihar, Maharashtra and West Bengal have the highest number of Muslim undertrials. But they also have a significant Muslim population.Undertrials languish in jails due to reasons that incldue repeated court adjournments, delays in police, prosecution not being ready , defence lawyers not being prepared, and the jail review systems going defunct, apart from a poor prisoner's inability to arrange for a lawyer and bail. The situation is worst in states like UP , MP , Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Rajasthan where there is a wide gap in the Hindu and Muslim undertrial rate.Bihar turns out to be one of the best with both Muslim and Hindu undertrial rates neck to neck. Maharashtra is the worst with a difference of over 45 points between the Hindu and Muslim rates. 

While this difference may not be entirely due to bias in the criminal justice system, a 2013 report on police attitude towards minorities prepared by three DGPs -Sanjeev Dayal of Maharashtra, Deoraj Nagar of UP and K Ramanujam of Tamil Nadu -and presented to the Centre held that there is a perception of police bias against Muslims. "It has to be admitted that the conduct of some members of the police forces... during communal riots had only served to strengthen these suspicions and distrust in the minority communities," the report read.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/SC-order-to-release-undertrials-will-come-to-aid-of-Muslim-prisoners/articleshow/41830997.cms

SC sets 2-month deadline to free long-jailed undertrials

Dhananjay Mahapatra,TNN | Sep 6, 2014, 03.24 AM IST

The SC bench gave the Centre three months to frame a comprehensive roadmap for fast-tracking the criminal justice system.

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NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday raised a fundamental question about citizens' liberty by asking whether arrest was the only way to bring a person in conflict with law to justice and whether the police have so far used it either "erroneously or onerously". 

"Is arrest the only way to bring people to justice? Think of it. We appear to be obsessed with arresting people though there are effective ways other than arrest to bring them to justice. We apply the arrest procedure either erroneously or onerously," a bench of Chief Justice R M Lodha and Justices Kurian Joseph and R F Nariman said. 

The bench put the question to attorney general Mukul Rohatgi on being informed by him that undertrials constituted more than 60% of the prison population and many were languishing for petty offences as they did not have the wherewithal to furnish bail bond or there was no one to stand surety for them. 

The bench gave the Centre three months to frame a comprehensive roadmap for fast-tracking the criminal justice system and asked the AG to take a look at the arrest procedure and whether it could form part of a legislative policy framework. 

On release of undertrials, Rohatgi provided the cue by informing the court that Section 436A of Criminal Procedure Code provided that every undertrial prisoner who has served half the maximum sentence provided for the offence for which he is charged should be released on personal bond. But this will not apply to those who are charged with offences which attract death penalty. 

The bench, which had asked the Centre for a roadmap for fast-tracking the entire criminal justice system rather than fast-tracking certain categories including politicians and influential persons facing heinous charges, ordered the lower judiciary to depute magistrates, chief judicial magistrates and sessions judges to hold court once a week in jails for two months starting October 1 and release undertrials on bail under Section 436A of CrPC. 

This initiative by the SC will supersede the Centre's ambitious plan on release of undertrial prisoners. The SC asked district judges to compile statistics about release of undertrial prisoners under Section 436A by November 30 and submit it to the HC registrar general concerned.





The SC asked the registrars-general to submit a report on every district of the state to the secretary general of the Supreme Court by December 5 and posted the matter for further hearing on December 8. 

Release of undertrial prisoners languishing for long periods for petty crimes was pioneered by M Veerappa Moily as law minister. During his tenure, over 6 lakh undertrial prisoners were released across the country as he toured every state and held meetings with his counterparts in states and HC chief justices. 

The SC on Friday ensured that the process initiated by Moily and being carried forward by law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad culminates early through active participation of judiciary at the prison level. 

But it told the AG that it expected the Centre to take the lead in setting up more courts along with infrastructure as states have been expressing inability to give the judiciary its due because of funds crunch. 

The bench said courts were not revenue generating institutions yet formed a crucial part of good governance. It said all states had in principle agreed to implement the decision to increase the strength of HC judges by 25%. But except for five states, it could not be done in other states because there was no infrastructure to accommodate them. 

The court said India had the worst judges to cases ratio in the world. "We have just 16,000 judges, starting from the Chief Justice of India till the lowest in the ladder, to deal with 30 million cases," it said. 

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/SC-sets-2-month-deadline-to-free-long-jailed-undertrials/articleshow/41820262.cms