New Delhi: CJI N V Ramana seems to be in a mission mode to facilitate the release of prisoners who languish in prison even after presenting old sentences despite entitled to the rules of prison for the forgiveness of state governments.
SC bench consisting of CJI and Justice Surya Kant revealed disappointment with the efforts of legal service authorities, both at the national and state levels, to educate prisoners about their feasibility for remissions and procedures to create applications looking for sentences after undergoing the required detention period.
“The legal service authority does not educate inmates about their rights to get remission.
Procedurally it is not difficult to put into a mechanism where prisoners can be aware of their rights and the right time to make such applications.
This can be achieved by keeping a record of the detention period of each convict By prison authorities and legal service authorities routinely access data to suggest qualified prisoners to submit remissions, “Bench LED CJI said.
Appearing for Tihar prison in Delhi, additional lawyer Jaya Jayant Sud told the court that all prisons in Delhi had installed e-kiosks that would display detailed detention periods, violations in which someone was punished and stolen by prisoners he opened Ekiosk through a biometric access mechanism.
However, CJI appears not satisfied with the sluggish authority approach in facilitating prisoners to use their rights to remission.
“Let me call the meeting of the authority concerned and examine this problem to develop a mechanism to help be entitled to prisoners in seeking separation,” said Justice Ramana.
There are 1,350 prisons in this country consisting of 617 sub-prisons, 410 district prisons, 144 central prisons, 86 open prisons, 41 special prisons, 31 women’s prisons, 19 others.
Prisons have the capacity to submit 4,03,739 detainees, but actually there are 4,78,600 of them at the end of December 2019.
Among them, 4.58,687 are men and 19,913 are women.
During the covid pandemic, SC has also ordered the release of detainees / undistrials facing prison for small violations to prevent the spread of covid in crowded prison.
On July 16, a bench headed by Cji Ramana had asked all states to complete in week details of the norms used to release detainees accused of mild violations of a full prison adjusting to March 23 2020.