Interim bail to continue for prisoners who were released at start of lockdown

The Delhi High Court had on October 23 ended its blanket order extending all interim bails and paroles to around 6,000 prisoners granted prior to and during the Covid-19 lockdown.

The high-powered committee appointed by the Delhi high court has extended the interim bail of prisoners who were released at the start of the lockdown to decongest the three prison complexes in Delhi.

The first category of prisoners who were released as per the criteria were those who were already lodged in prison for a long time and were not involved in heinous cases. (Hindustan Times)

The Delhi High Court had on October 23 ended its blanket order extending all interim bails and paroles to around 6,000 prisoners granted prior to and during the Covid-19 lockdown. That order will come in effect from October 31. All under trials, whose bail was extended, have to surrender in a phased manner between November 2 and November 13, it said.

During a meeting of the committee -- BS Bhalla, principal secretary(home), Delhi prisons’s director general Sandeep Goel and Kanwal Jeet Arora, member of the Delhi State Legal Services Authority — the committee decided to extend the interim bail of those under trials who were released as per the criteria set out by the committee.

Others (those arrested recently or were granted interim bail by the court in regular hearings) will have to surrender as per the timeline set by the special bench of the Delhi High Court between November 2 and 13. The dates for the return(surrender) in December of those released as per criteria set out by committee is yet to be decided.

The first category of prisoners who were released as per the criteria were those who were already lodged in prison for a long time and were not involved in heinous cases. Another important criterion for release of prisoners was that they must have already served half of their sentences in non-heinous cases.

According to the minutes of the meetings, the prisoners from the second category(those released on interim bail by the order of the court in regular hearings) will return in batches from November 2. They will first be kept in isolation for 14 days at the Mandoli Police Complex. The complex has already been turned into a temporary quarantine jail by the Delhi government. The new prisoners will be shifted to prison only after they complete the 14-day mandatory quarantine period. The officers also decided that they would advise prisoners to get tested for Covid-19 and also get a test report, but this will not be made mandatory.

Until October 24, the three prisons -- Tihar, Rohini and Mandoli - had reported 89 Covid-19 cases among prisoners and 219 among jail staff. Two prisoners had succumbed to the virus. At present, there are three active cases, while the rest have recovered. Among the jail staff, 209 have recovered and there are 10 active cases.