The Supreme Court on Tuesday found no fault with Maharashtra High-Powered Committee’s (HPC) system of classification of prisoners and undertrials for release on interim bail or parole amid the pandemic.
A judgment by a Bench led by Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde did not agree with the view taken by activist Medha Patkar, represented by advocates P.B. Suresh and Vipin Nair, that the HPC guidelines classifying the undertrials and prisoners were discriminatory.
The court said the very prospect of granting interim bail or parole was suggested by the court to decongest prisons considering the unprecedented circumstance of the pandemic.
“Bail is more in the nature of human right to safeguard the health ... At the same time the benefit granted in such circumstance cannot be to the detriment of social order by releasing all categories of prisoners,” the court noted.
3 categories
The HPC had categorised inmates into three categories — undertrials or convicts serving less than seven years; convicts with a sentence of more than seven years; and undertrials/convicts booked for serious economic offences/bank scams and under Special Acts against money laundering, organised crime, etc. The State had notified the guidelines on May 8.
The judgment recorded the Maharashtra government’s submission that “temporary prisons have been set up in 36 locations and about 2,597 prisoners are occupying them and more will be shifted to avoid overcrowding in the existing prisons.”
The court, however, allowed Ms. Patkar and other concerned citizens to approach a competent court if they spot “any individuous discrimination among prisoners in same category” in future.
HPCs were ordered to be set up by the apex court in a suo motu case in the wake of the pandemic to avoid the overcrowding of prisons and prevent the spread of infection.
“The intention of this court was not that every undertrial or convicted prisoner is to be released irrespective of the nature of offence or severity thereof,” the court clarified in Tuesday’s verdict.