Ensure prisoners who have got bail are released: Madras High Court

CHENNAI: Prisoners languishing in jail even after granted with bail is violation of his/her Constitutional rights, opined the Madras High Court and directed the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry governments to take action to ensure that all the prisoners who have got bail are released.

Granting bail cannot be treated as an empty formality by imposing conditions which are impossible for the prisoners to execute, it is better denying bail rather than imposing such unfeasible or stringent bail conditions, observed a division bench of Justices SM Subramaniam and M Jothiraman, while hearing a suo motu proceedings initiated based on DT NEXT report exposing several hundreds of prisoners languishing in jail though granted with bail.

Additional public prosecutor R Muniyapparaj submitted a status report stating that totally 104 prisoners are languishing in jail across the State, after granted with bail, since unable to execute the bond conditions.

Member secretary of State Legal Services Authority (SLSA) K Sudha submitted that actions has been taken through the district legal services authority to ensure the prisoners to avail legal aid and other assistance to release from the jail.

Advocate CSS Pillai, for the SLSA submitted that since in some cases the imposed bail conditions are more stringent which are impossible for the prisoners to execute it, hence they are continue to languish in the prison.

The bench intervened and observed in such case, the legal services authority should file a petition before the court to modify the bail conditions so as to assist the prisoners to release from the jail.

Justice SM Subramaniam observed that in some cases, government servant surety is imposed as bail condition, "which government servant will come forward for an accused to get bail", the judge wondered. Such conditions paving way for some government servants to milk cash out of the situation as they're giving surety for money, the judge added.

Public Prosecutor of Puducherry, KS Mohandass, submitted that 14 prisoners are languishing in the jails of the union territory and actions has been taken to release those prionsers.

After all the submissions the bench directed both the governments and SLSA to ensure all the prisoners who have got bail are released from the jail and posted the matter after four weeks, for further proceedings.