COVID19: Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind moves SC for bail to inmates on humanitarian ground

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 11

Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind—a prominent Islamic body in India—on Monday moved the Supreme Court seeking conditional bail to eligible jail inmates across the country on humanitarian ground in view of COVID19 pandemic.

Last month, the top court had taken suo motu cognisance of the issue and directed state governments to work out plans on releasing inmates to decongest prison to avoid spread of Coronavirus. 

Seeking to intervene in the case, Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind said interim bail should be granted to inmates with less than seven years prison sentence and other eligible prisoners affected or likely to get affected by Covid19.

It cited the incident of Mumbai’s Arthur Road Jail and Byculla Jail where inmates and jail staffs have been reported to be COVID19 positive.

Jamiat-Ulama-i-Hind said it moved SC after family members of accused approached it to take up the matter.

It said health departments have directed that social distancing was the only effective way to prevent the spread of coronavirus, but it was impossible to do so in prisons because of overcrowding.