Take quick decision on appeal by life convicts: SC to 3 states

New Delhi: Governments in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Chhattisgarh will have to decide applications for premature release of life convicts who have served 14 years within eight months of the requests being filed, the Supreme Court said on Wednesday, ordering the three states to implement a scheme drafted by the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) on an experimental basis

New Delhi: Governments in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Chhattisgarh will have to decide applications for premature release of life convicts who have served 14 years within eight months of the requests being filed, the Supreme Court said on Wednesday, ordering the three states to implement a scheme drafted by the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) on an experimental basis.

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The top court involved NASLA in January this year after a bench of justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Hemant Gupta came across a case in Chhattisgarh where a convict who completed 14 years imprisonment had to wait another three years for his remission plea to be decided.

NALSA got back to the top court in February this year, telling the bench that there were 1,649 prisoners languishing in prisons awaiting a decision on their requests. Besides, it said, there were 431 prisoners who were eligible to file a request but hadn’t applied, 83 prisoners sought legal aid to apply and 752 prisoners had their applications rejected.

The findings convinced the bench to ask NALSA to study state policies and come up with a uniform scheme to deal with remission applications.

Advocate Gaurav Agrawal who appeared for NALSA informed the court that a uniform scheme would be problematic since states had different policies, criteria on the eligibility of prisoners and the period that life convicts need to serve. Even the authority empowered to approve remission requests were different. In some states, the jail officials are empowered while some others require a recommendation of an advisory committee.

One common factor, NALSA’s analysis concluded, was that there were no deadlines for the authorities. The NALSA scheme approved by the Supreme Court on Wednesday involves three steps. It gives states three months for identification and collection of data about eligible prisoners by prison authorities, three months for a recommendation by Sentence Review Board (SRB) or Advisory Board, and two more months to the state government for missing the final orders.