Supreme Court orders all prisoners released on ‘covid-19 parole’ to surrender in 15 days
Satya Prakash
New Delhi, March 24
The Supreme Court on Friday directed all prisoners released on emergency parole by the state high-powered committees constituted on its order during the covid-19 to surrender in 15 days.
“All those undertrial prisoners and convicts who have been released on emergency parole/interim bail pursuant to the recommendations of the high-powered committee in compliance of the orders passed by this court have to surrender before the prison authorities concerned within 15 days,” a Bench led by Justice MR Shah said.
After surrender, it will be open for undertrial prisoners to apply for bail before the competent court and their applications would be considered in accordance with the law, it said.
Regarding the convicts released on emergency parole, the Bench said they were free to seek suspension of sentence by approaching the court before which their appeals were pending.
The top court also rejected a convict’s plea seeking consideration of parole granted during the covid-19 pandemic to be counted as part of his actual sentence.
Taking suo motu cognisance of the medical assistance needed for prisoners in overcrowded jails to save them from coronavirus, the Supreme Court had on March 16, 2020 issued notices to chief secretaries, home secretaries, DGs (Prisons) and social welfare secretaries of all states and Union Territories. It had also asked them to suggest immediate measures to be taken for medical protection of prisoners in jails and juveniles lodged in remand homes.
There are 1,339 prisons in this country, and approximately 4,66,084 inmates inhabit such prisons. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, the occupancy rate of Indian prisons is at 117.6%, and in states such as Uttar Pradesh and Sikkim, the occupancy rate is as high as 176.5% and 157.3% respectively, it had noted.
The top court had passed several orders during the first and second waves of the pandemic for grant of emergency parole to prisoners to avoid the overcrowding of prisons to check the spread of covid-19 among prisoners.
