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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Moily's mission: Get 75% of undertrials out of prison by July 31 by Dhananjay Mahapatra

Moily's mission: Get 75% of undertrials out of prison by July 31 by Dhananjay Mahapatra

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published Published on Jan 17, 2010   modified Modified on Jan 17, 2010

Year 2010 could go down in history as a watershed for undertrial prisoners, who for long have been the silent victims of apathy of the police, prosecuting agencies, prison authorities and judiciary.

The UPA government is setting a six-month deadline, starting January 26, for the release of 1.25 lakh of the 1.7 lakh undertrials languishing in jail though booked for petty offences and despite having served a major part of the prescribed maximum sentence.

Law minister Veerappa Moily's mission to set right the state of affairs was reflected in his letter to the chief justices of all high courts, requesting them to do everything possible to facilitate the early release of these prisoners.

The mission for early release of the undertrials languishing in prison will be launched on `Law Day' on January 26 as part of the comprehensive legal reforms initated by the UPA government, which held an elaborate consultation with the chief justices and chief ministers in August last year.

India has around 1,500 jails having a capacity to lodge 2.5 lakh prisoners. But these house as many as 3.5 lakh inmates. As many as 70% of the jail population comprises undertrials, which means their number could be pegged at 2.45 lakh. As 70% of the undertrial prisoners are booked for petty offences, this category of population in jails would be 1.7 lakh.

"The first target is to get those languishing in jails for years for petty offences and those who have either undergone the maximum punishment or major portion thereof without conviction out of prison by July 31," Moily told TOI from Bangalore.

"I have requested the chief justices of all high courts to instruct the district courts to do everything possible under the Criminal Procedure Code and other laws to ensure that those languishing in prison unnecessarily be forthwith released," he said.

Asked how so many undertrial prisoners could be released within six months, he said there are many ways to achieve the result -- plea bargaining system in which the undertrial accepts guilt and the court records conviction and releases him by sentencing him to the period of imprisonment already undergone, expediting their cases by holding trial on a day-to-day basis, holding court proceedings inside the prison premises or through video-conferencing.

It is just not a theoretical guideline from the law ministry. Moily himself has put a structured plan and written to Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan as well as Justice Altamas Kabir, a judge of the Supreme Court who heads the National Legal Services Authority that pilots legal aid to poor litigants through state units, to enlist their support.

To ensure that there is no hitch from the government side, the law minister has divided the country into various zones and put an additional solicitor general in charge of each to see that the first actual legal reform by way of releasing undertrials becomes successful.

"Guidance to the ASGs would come from attorney-general G E Vahanvati and solicitor-general Gopal Subramaniam," Moily said.

In August last year, it was Prime Minister Manomhan Singh who had virtually pushed for early release of undertrials. This was agreed to immediately by the law minister and the CJI.

Speaking at the conference of chief ministers and chief justices, the PM had said: "A matter of concern, indeed worry, is the large number of undertrials in our jails. Many such undertrials have been in jail for periods longer than they would have served had they been sentenced. This is indeed very disturbing. There have been pronouncements of the high courts and the Supreme Court on this issue but still the number of undertrials in jails continues to be very high."


The Times of India, 17 January, 2010, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Moilys-mission-Get-75-of-undertrials-out-of-prison-by-July-31/articleshow/5454196.cms
 

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