NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Uttar Pradesh's police chief to inform if the state government has complied with a previous direction to release prisoners prematurely in terms of its own policy.
A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice P S Narasimha asked the DGP, Uttar Pradesh to file a personal affidavit in this regard.
The court appointed advocate Rishi Malhotra as amicus curiae in the matter.
The bench also issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh Legal Services Authority saying it would be asked to visit each prison in the state to ascertain the number of prisoners, eligible for premature release.
After hearing UP's Additional Advocate General Ardhendumauli Prasad, the court, in its orders, asked the DGP to inform about the number of steps taken in pursuance of the judgement in Rashidul Zafar case and the institutional arrangements put in place.
The court also sought to known how many convicts are eligible for premature release district wise and how many cases have been considered for premature release since the judgment of Rashidul Zafar passed on September 6, 2022.
It also sought information as to how many such cases were pending and the time period by which those cases will be considered.
In its previous judgement, the court had dealt with a batch of cases which emanated from Uttar Pradesh, related to premature release of 512 convicts who were undergoing a sentence of imprisonment for life.
The bench of Justice Chandrachud and Justice Hima Kohli had then issued the following directions:
(i) All cases for premature release of convicts undergoing imprisonment for life in the present batch of cases shall be considered in terms of the policy dated 1 August 2018, as amended, subject to the observations which are contained herein. The restriction that a life convict is not eligible for premature release until attaining the age of sixty years, which was introduced by the policy of 28 July 2021, stands deleted by the amendment dated 27 May 2022. Hence, no case for premature release shall be rejected on that ground;
(ii) In the event that any convict is entitled to more liberal benefits by any of the amendments which have been brought about subsequent to the policy dated 1 August 2018, the case for the grant of premature release would be considered by granting benefit in terms of more liberal amended para/clause of the policies. All decisions of premature release of convicts, including those, beyond the present batch of cases would be entitled to such a beneficial reading of the policy;
(iii) In terms of para 4 of the policy dated 1 August 2018, no application is required to be submitted by a convict undergoing life imprisonment for premature release. Further, through amendment dated 28 July 2021, para 3(i), which included convicts undergoing life imprisonment who have not filed application for pre-mature release in the prohibited category, has specifically been deleted. Accordingly, all cases of convicts undergoing life sentence in the State of Uttar Pradesh who are eligible for being considered for premature release in terms of the policy, including but not confined to the five hundred and twelve prisoners involved in the present batch of cases, shall be considered in terms of the procedure for premature release stipulated in the policy;
(iv) The District Legal Services Authorities in the State of Uttar Pradesh shall take necessary steps in coordination with the jail authorities to ensure that all eligible cases of prisoners who would be entitled to premature release in terms of the applicable policies, as noticed above, would be duly considered and no prisoner, who is otherwise eligible for being considered, shall be excluded from consideration.
(v) These steps to be taken by DLSAs would, include but not be limited to, Secretaries of DLSAs seeking status report on all prisoners undergoing life imprisonment in the prisons falling under their jurisdiction in terms of the format of table prepared in Annexure-A covering the details mentioned in para 13 of this judgment and ensuring its submission by relevant authorities within eight weeks of this order as well as on an annual basis. Further, DLSAs would utilize this status report to monitor and engage with respective authorities to ensure the implementation of our directions to ensure premature release in terms of applicable policies in all eligible cases of convicts undergoing life sentence on a continuous basis;
(vi) The applications for premature release shall be considered expeditiously.
Those cases which have already been processed and in respect of which reports have been submitted shall be concluded and final decisions intimated to the convict no later than within a period of one month from the date of this order. Cases of eligible life convicts who are (i) above the age of seventy years; or (ii) suffering from terminal ailments shall be taken up on priority and would be disposed of within a period of two months. The Uttar Pradesh State Legal Services Authority shall, within a period of two weeks, lay down the priorities according to which all other pending cases shall be disposed of. All other cases shall, in any event, be disposed of within a period of four months from the date of this order; and
(vii) Where any convict undergoing life imprisonment has already been released on bail by the orders of this Court, the order granting interim bail shall continue to remain in operation until the disposal of the application for premature release.
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