NEW DELHI: Supreme Court judge and executive chairperson of the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA), S K Kaul, recently called as “disturbing” the presumption of considering long incarceration of undertrials as “punishment or sentence”.
Speaking at the launch of NALSA’s Under Trial Review Committee (UTRC) Special Campaign, 2023, Justice Kaul, while taking a grim view regarding the undertrials remaining in jails despite being eligible to be reviewed for release, said, “We could not have a scenario where we perceive that the only punishment that can be delivered is keeping people at the undertrial stage, irrespective of whether the prosecution has the ability to get conviction ultimately or not."
“This is a disturbing trend, where people remain behind bars as undertrials, and the presumption is that — whether they are able to get a conviction or not — this is what may be the punishment or sentence is. The issue of undertrial prisoners languishing in prison despite being eligible to be reviewed for release, have continued to come up before the Supreme Court as well as the high courts.”
The Under Trial Review Committee is a district-level body tasked with reviewing the cases of prisoners recommended to be released periodically.
The drive, which would be undertaken pan-India from September 18 to November 20, 2023, aims to accelerate the functioning of UTRC, headed by district and session court judges.