Speedy justice for jailed petty undertrials soon
Law Minister, CJI Moot Proposal To Bail Out 1.7 Lakh Such Cases
New Delhi: For nearly 1.7 lakh undertrials languishing in jails for years despite being booked for petty offences, there appears to be some good news at last.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, law minister Veerappa Moily and Chief Justice of India (CJI) K G Balakrishnan are unanimous that urgent steps are needed to secure their release as in many cases, their period of detention due to the slow pace of justice delivery system could have actually overshot the sentence that would have been awarded to them in case of conviction.
Speaking at a conference of chief ministers and chief justices on Sunday, the CJI said every chief judicial magistrate had been instructed by the HCs to be in touch with jail authorities to find out the number of undertrials booked for petty offences. If they had served more than half the sentence that would have been awarded to them in case of conviction at a future date, then they could be immediately released on a personal bond, the CJI said, adding that the benefit of plea bargaining would also be available to them.
Expressing deep concern over undertrials languishing in jails even for petty offences, the PM said, Many of them have been in jail for periods longer than they would have served had they been sentenced. This is indeed very disturbing. There have been pronouncements of the high courts and the SC on this issue but still their number in jails continues to be very high.
India has around 1,500 jails with a capacity of 2.5 lakh prisoners, but they house 3.5 lakh inmates. As much as 70% of the jail population is made up of undertrials, which means the number could be pegged at 2.45 lakh. Of these, according to the CJI, 70% or 1.7 lakh were booked for petty offences.