Supreme Court photo Image credit source: PTI
The Supreme Court has slammed the UP government on the issue of relaxation in the punishment of prisoners. In fact, the court has said that the bail applications of many prisoners are pending for long, which should be disposed of. The court had set a time limit for disposal of the prisoners’ amnesty petitions, which the UP government had not followed, prompting the court to reprimand the state.
The state apologized to the court but the court said, we reject your apology. The order was deliberately not followed on your part.
The court questioned the government
Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice AG Masih said how can you take 2-4 months even after passing our order? The court said that this kind of attitude of the state government is against the rights of the prisoners. It is playing with the fundamental rights of criminals. Responding to the court’s statement, Rakesh Kumar, a lawyer representing UP, said the officials were on leave. In response to which the Supreme Court said that an affidavit should be filed stating that the Hon’ble Chief Minister’s Secretariat has not accepted the file and put forward the names of the officers.
The court ordered
We direct that counsel Rakesh Kumar produce the names of the responsible persons who refused to accept the file, the court ordered. Before taking any decision on contempt, we direct that the affidavit be submitted to the officials in the Chief Minister’s Office by August 14. However, this case was registered on August 20.
what was the matter
On May 16, 2022, the Supreme Court ordered the state government to take a final decision on the pleas for premature release of some life convicts within three months. Despite this, many prisoners’ applications for early release are yet to be decided. In September 2022, while hearing a pre-release petition, the Supreme Court had said that if a prisoner meets the eligibility criteria for pre-release, his release should be considered even without an application.
14 prisoners got bail
The court also asked that the petitions of the inmates, who have received them, be acted upon expeditiously. The court directed the DLSA (District Legal Services Authority) to prepare a report of all eligible inmates in collaboration with the jail authorities. On March 25, 2022, the court in its order granted bail to all the 12 petitioner prisoners, saying that all of them have served nearly 14 years of imprisonment and their bail applications have been pending in the High Court for years. In such a situation all applicants are granted bail. The court asked that the petitioner prisoners be released on bail after fulfilling the conditions imposed on the prisoners by the trial court.
