NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has taken suo motu cognizance of the delay in releasing convicts by prison authorities even after being granted bail by courts. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, and Justices L Nageswara Rao and AS Bopanna will be hearing the case today.
The top court will also take stock of the situation in relation to its May 8 order in another suo motu case of 2020, which was meant to decongest prisons in view of the spread of Covid-19 in the prisons. Taking note of the surge in cases, a CJI-led bench had passed a slew of directions to decongest prisons and ordered immediate release of prisoners who were granted bail or parole last year.
Recently, the Supreme Court had granted immediate interim bail to 13 convicts lodged in Agra Central Jail. The order was passed on July 8, but the convicts walked out of jail after four days since the prison authorities stated that they did not receive the certified copy of the order by post.
The convicts had spent between 14 and 20 years in prison despite being juveniles at the time of committing the crimes. But despite getting bail on July 8, they were not released until July 12, as prison authorities claimed that they had not received the bail orders.