Laxity in Executing Laws and Court Orders End up in Denying Rights of the Undertrials

MK Faizy National President

Normally prisons are meant to accommodate those who are convicted of committing crimes. Unfortunately, studies reveal that most of the inmates in the already overcrowded Indian prisons are undertrials, a whopping 74%! India is reported to have the fourth highest number of people in prison in the world after the US, China and Brazil, according to World Prison Brief data. And India has the highest proportion of undertrials out of these countries. As of April 2024, there were nearly 530,000 prisoners of which 74.6% were undertrial, reports the April-June quarterly report of the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) on the functioning of Undertrial Review Committees (UTRC). Cases of 24,100 undertrials, which amounts to 5% of the prisoners, were reviewed by the Undertrial Review Committees. 15,777 undertrials out of these prisoners were recommended for release and 12,395 bail applications were filed. According to the NALSA data bail was granted to 74% of them, and 7,421 prisoners were released. Overall, 1.4% of all prisoners, less than half of those recommended for release, were released through this process.These detentions, despite multiple Supreme Court orders to ensure prisoners are released on bail without onerous conditions, and the recently launched government scheme to support bail for poor prisoners, reflect the inefficiency of the system. In August 2024, the Supreme Court said that Section 479 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) shall apply to “all undertrials in pending cases irrespective of whether the case was registered against them before 1st July 2024”. The Section provides for timely bail and consideration for early release on bond of first-time offenders, potentially reducing prison overcrowding. It is highly deplorable that the laws and apex court orders are not properly executed due to the indifference and inefficiency of the system. This leads to the denial of the fundamental rights of the citizens.