Formulate SOP to release prisoners within 48 hours of bail: File case with authorities

“For special emergencies such as funerals, you have to squeeze it down to 5-6 hours,” it added.

New Delhi:

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked authorities in the national capital to formulate standard operating procedures (SOPs) to ensure that prisoners granted bail are released from jail within 48 hours.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Amit Mahajan said the time frame would have to be further compressed if a prisoner was released for emergencies such as attending a funeral or wedding.

The court was hearing a case filed by it accusing jail authorities of delay in accepting bail to release prisoners and asked Delhi government lawyers to take instructions and file a fresh affidavit within 10 days.

Delhi government lawyers said there may be delays in releasing a prisoner as the police take time to verify the details of the surety provided by the prisoner and the police have issued a notification setting out the same time frame.

The court noted that most of the prisoners were poor and were represented by legal aid lawyers who could not possibly follow up with everyone once they were released on bail.

“There is a standard operating procedure for releasing him within 48 hours… Just make a standard operating procedure for releasing the person within 48 hours,” the court said.

“For special emergencies such as funerals, you have to squeeze it down to 5-6 hours,” it added.

Stating that the situation in the jail is “very serious” as the jail is operating at more than twice its capacity, the court recommended the use of technology to speed up the process and asked Delhi government lawyers to spell out the proposed steps and resources required to resolve the issue. Delay issues.

“Talk to the warden and the warden,” the judge told government lawyers.

Justice Mahajan, who filed a “suo motu” case last month against the jail authorities’ delay in accepting bail for released prisoners, noted that one day’s deprivation of freedom was too much.

The judge stated that the purpose of granting bail and suspended sentence is to release the accused or convict from imprisonment and delaying the acceptance of bail at the request of the prison superintendent is unacceptable to the conscience of the court.

The court passed the order after learning that a convict in a check bounce case was told that the procedure to accept bail and get interim bail would take about one to two weeks.

The matter will be heard on April 1.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)