SC expresses concern over failure of prisoners to avail bail because of failure to furnish surety

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday flagged the issue of prisoners not able to avail bail because of failure to furnish surety despite grant of relief by courts.

A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Augustine George Masih sought to know the manner in which information available on the e-prison module, a comprehensive jail management system, can be used to trace out such cases.

"Have we considered the issue of people not availing bail as they are not able to furnish surety?" the bench observed, while hearing a suo motu case of 2021 titled as 'Policy Strategy for Grant of Bail'.

The apex court's observation came while it was hearing submissions on the issues relating to e-prison module.

It asked the counsel appearing for the parties to address on this aspect, saying it has some connection with the issue of e-prison module.

"Please look into that also... information available on this module can be used to trace out cases where people have been granted bail but they have not availed it," the bench observed, adding that it would expand the scope of the suo motu case.

The hearing in matter would continue next week.

The top court had last month issued a slew of directions aimed at standardising and improving the transparency of policies governing permanent remission to convicts in the country.

"At this stage, we issue the following directions, which will apply to all the states: (i) The copies of the existing policies governing the grant of permanent remission shall be made available in each and every prison in the states, and the copies thereof with their English translation shall be uploaded on the appropriate website of the Government," it had said.

The top court had also issued a direction to the jail superintendents and prison authorities to ensure that information about the existence of the policies was furnished to all the convicts who were in the zone of consideration.

"We also direct that whenever there are modifications in the policies, the modified policies shall be made available in terms of the above direction," the bench had said.

It had directed that the states shall ensure that orders of rejection of applications for grant of permanent remission were communicated to the concerned convicts.

"We make it clear that the states shall ensure that the rejection orders are communicated in terms of the above directions within a period of one week from the date of passing of the rejection orders," the bench had said.

In April last year, the apex court was informed that e-prison module was being used by 1,292 prisons across the country and holds the records of 1.88 crore prisoners.