The National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) filed a petition in the Bombay High Court on Thursday, challenging the decision of the State-appointed high-powered committee to release prisoners, in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, which exempts those charged under special Acts. NAPM is a pan-Indian coalition of movements for social justice and democratic development.
The petition said several prisoners are denied interim bail and emergency parole due to the conditions imposed by the committee. Even after the release of 10,000 prisoners across Maharashtra since March, prisons continue to be overcrowded. Over 1,000 prisoners and jail staffers have tested positive and four prisoners have succumbed to COVID-19, due to the impossibility of maintaining physical distancing in prisons.
The petition sought to quash the decision of the committee and sought a direction from the court to release prisoners convicted with life imprisonment without insisting that they have already been released in the past at least twice either on furlough or parole.
The matter will be heard before a Division Bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Anuja Prabhudessai on July 17.
On March 23, the Supreme Court took a suo motu cognisance of the critical risk of the COVID-19 infection spreading in overcrowded prisons across the country and gave certain directions. The apex court said, “Each State and Union Territory should constitute a high-powered committee to determine which class of prisoners can be released on parole or an interim bail for such period as may be thought appropriate. For instance, the State or Union Territory could consider the release of prisoners who have been convicted or are undertrial for offences for which prescribed punishment is up to seven years or less, with or without fine, and the prisoner has been convicted for a lesser number of years than the maximum.”
The committee excludes those charged under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, Prevention of Money Laundering Act, Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors Act, Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, and foreign nationals.