Premature release of life convict: SC gives one month deadline to UP

The 68-year-old petitioner in the present case, Karuna Shankar, was a life convict who had undergone 15 years and 14 days in prison and submitted a request for premature release in September 2019.

Frowning over a three-year delay by the Uttar Pradesh government to decide on a premature release of a life convict who spent over 15 years in jail, the Supreme Court on Friday set a deadline of one month to decide on the same and warned the director general (prisons) to set his house in order or else face action in the event such “recalcitrance” gets highlighted in any future case.

(Representative Photo)

A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and justice PS Narasimha said, “The DG (prisons) is placed on notice that this Court will be constrained to take recourse to the coercive arm of the law if recalcitrance in other instances is brought to the notice of the Court.”

This is the second consecutive direction issued in two weeks.

On January 5, the same bench sought a personal affidavit from the DG (prisons) on being confronted with the delay in deciding the premature release pleas of 50 prisoners. In that matter, the Court appointed advocate Rishi Malhotra as amicus curiae and sought district-wise data on eligible prisoners for premature release, time taken to decide their cases, and institutional set-up to ensure compliance with timelines provided by the earlier directions given by the top court directions.

The 68-year-old petitioner in the present case, Karuna Shankar, was a life convict who had undergone 15 years and 14 days in prison and submitted a request for premature release in September 2019.

The application was tossed between the Ghaziabad jail where he is lodged, the prison headquarters and the district magistrate. The last communication was on December 6 when the prison headquarters wrote to the district jail to supply details about co-accused persons.

“We direct that in one month, the DG (prisons) shall duly consider and dispose the application filed by the petitioner and file an affidavit of compliance by February 15,” said the bench, adding that in case of non-compliance, the petitioner will have the liberty to mention the case for listing.

Besides the cases of prisoners coming to the Supreme Court, the CJI considered the plight of so many who failed to file petitions. Referring to its January 5 order, the bench proposed to institutionalize the procedure for timely disposal of premature release applications by involving the district legal service authorities to help eligible prisoners to apply for release.

Alternatively, the Supreme Court proposed having a dedicated bench at the Allahabad high court to deal with these cases.

Under the August 1, 2018, premature release policy, prisoners are eligible for release after undergoing 16 years of the actual sentence. On July 28, 2021, the state amended the policy and made it applicable to only those prisoners who attained 60 years of age. This policy is currently under challenge in the top court which is part of a separate proceeding.