Hyderabad: Despite repeated orders of the Supreme Court to release prisoners who are under trial unable to furnish bail bonds due to poverty, scores of such prisoners are languishing in jails in Telangana state and Andhra Pradesh.
The Supreme Court had said that undertrials should not be subjected to incarceration only for the reason of non-furnishing of bail bonds.
A three-member bench comprising Chief Justice R.M. Lodha, Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice Rohinton Nariman in 2014 had observed: “There are people who cannot take bail. There is nobody for them.”
City advocate D. Suresh Kumar, who was appearing before the Hyderabad High Court in a case seeking the release of the prisoners, said the jails in Andhra Pradesh had more than 100 prisoners who could not furnish bail bonds.
He said, “Personal liberty is of utmost importance under Article 21 of the Constitution.”
According to legal policy researcher Dr K. Murali, who had moved the public interest litigation before the High Court for the release of undertrials, “A large number of poor men, distressed women and unfortunate children are lodged behind bars firstly awaiting trial for months. Then there are a large number of those who could not be released despite bail orders for not fulfilling the conditions attached with the bail orders because of their extreme poverty and ignorance.”
As per Dr Murali’s affidavit filed before the High Court on March 8, there are 180 undertrial prisoners who have been granted bail by various courts but not released due to their inability to furnish sureties and comply with other conditions.
The affidavit said there are 80 undertrial prisoners in the Central Prison at Chanchalguda, according to the information made available by the inspector-general of prisons, Telangana state.
Reminding that the Supreme Court had held that the trial courts were obliged to consider such persons for bail, Mr Suresh Kumar said most of the trial courts were not considering this aspect as they were apprehensive of the undertrial absconding upon release on personal bond.
He said that the Civil Liberties Committee of Andhra Pradesh had been collecting data of undertrials who cannot afford to furnish bail bonds and would move the High Court after collating the information.
