E-Paper
Supreme Court gives bail to 97 convicts who served 20 yrs in Uttar Pradesh jails
The Supreme Court also issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh government to ascertain on record the entitlement of convicts for premature release as per the policy of August 1, 2018.
The Supreme Court has ordered 97 prisoners languishing for over 20 years across different jails in Uttar Pradesh to be released on bail after it was noted that the convicts would have been entitled to premature release under the state’s policy for prisoners who have served 20 years of their sentence.
The order was passed by a bench of justices Indira Banerjee and JK Maheshwari on two petitions filed by a set of 66 convicts in one petition and 31 convicts in another.
Representing their case, advocate Rishi Malhotra told the court that the case of the petitioners highlighted a “shocking and sorry state of affairs” in Uttar Pradesh where the prisoners were still in prison despite being entitled to premature release.
The Supreme Court also issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh government to ascertain on record the entitlement of convicts for premature release as per the policy of August 1, 2018.
The bench also granted bail to the 97 convicts, saying, “Since the petitioners have been in jail for over 20 years, they shall be released on ad interim bail subject to the terms and conditions to be imposed by the trial court to its satisfaction.”
The two petitions raised a question of law on the ground that the UP government, on July 28, amended its policy of August 1, 2018 on premature release and introduced a condition that only those convicts who have attained the age of 60 years or more would be entitled under the 2018 policy.
Malhotra said, “It is a settled law that it is the policy which was in existence at the time of conviction which would be applicable and not the policy which is applicable at the time of consideration for premature release of a convict.”
He urged the Supreme Court to determine whether the state government could defeat the statutory right of these 97 petitioners who became entitled to release as per the August 2018 policy after serving 20 years.
He underlined that the change in policy by the Uttar Pradesh government came after the Supreme Court, on May 4 this year, ordered the release of about 32 convicts lodged in Uttar Pradesh’s jails. When the state failed to act on the direction, a contempt petition was filed, following which all the 32 convicts, who had undergone over 20 years of incarceration, were released.
On August 25, another bench of the Supreme Court, while considering the case of 18 convicts in UP jails whose appeals were not heard for years together, noted that there are nearly 7,214 convicts across various jails in the state who have undergone more than 10 years in jail and are awaiting a decision on their criminal appeals.
The Supreme Court further noted that an “astronomical” figure of 1.83 lakh criminal appeals are pending decision with the Allahabad high court and Lucknow bench and sought a response from the high court to remedy this situation.
