In two applications filed in the ongoing suo moto criminal writ petition before the Supreme Court concerning bail policy, a Bench comprising Justice M.M. Sundresh and Justice Prasanna B. Varale directed the State of U.P. to undertake the exercise for the under-trial prisoners who had been granted bail but could not be released for want of compliance of conditions of bail, in consultation with the respective DLSA.
It was asserted that there were 264 under-trial prisoners spanning across 20 districts who had been granted bail, but could not be released for want of execution of sureties and other conditions imposed by the trial court. The State of Uttar Pradesh submitted that out of 264 under-trial prisoners, only 158 had been released and that an appropriate decision will be taken for the remaining 106 prisoners.
The National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) submitted that periodical reviews had been undertaken every month with the active participation of the District Legal Services Authority. It was mentioned that the cases that had not been dealt with, would be added in the meeting which is to be convened next month, which is why 106 under trial prisoners were yet to be released.
It was further contended that the statistics available were only of 20 districts and that the exercise has to be undertaken for the remaining 55 districts. To this, the State of U.P. submitted that the needful would be done within a reasonable time period.
Considering this, the Court directed the State of U.P. to undertake the exercise for the under-trial prisoners who had been granted bail but could not be released for want of compliance of conditions of bail, in consultation with the respective DLSA. It was stated that this direction would be applicable even to those under-trial prisoners who could not comply with the bail conditions, despite having engaged private lawyers. The Court said that there cannot be any differentiation between the under-trial prisoners, who have the assistance of DLSA and those who have engaged private counsel.
It was stated that merely because private lawyers were engaged, assistance from DLSA counsel could not be denied and hence, the Court held that notwithstanding the presence of counsel appearing for the accused person who had been granted bail, further assistance can be rendered by DLSA. The Court said that the onus lies on the State to make sure that such persons are released from custody.
Lastly, the Court requested the courts concerned to take up those cases which were brought into notice by the respective DLSA and modify the condition(s) suitably, so that the under-trial prisoners can be released accordingly.
The matter will now be listed on 20-01-2027.
Appearances
For Petitioner (Amicus Curiae) – Mr. Gaurav Aggarwal (Sr. Adv.)
For Respondents – Mr. P. I. Jose (AOR), Mr. Atul Arvind, Mr. Dr. Mahesh Y Reddy, Mr. Darshan Chandrakant Siddarkar, Mr. Varun Prasad, Mr. Rashika Kapoor, Mr. Ravinder Kumar Yadav (AOR), Mr. Kanhaiya Singhal (AOR), Mr. Gaurav Dhama, Mr. Karan Sharma (AOR), Mr. Mukesh K. Giri (AOR), Mr. Mandaar Mukesh Giri, Mr. Pranjal Kumar, Mr. Kunal Chaudhary, Mr. Arunabh Chowdhury (Sr. A.A.G.), Mr. Vishnu Sharma (Standing Counsel), Ms. Madhusmita Bora (AOR), Mrs. Anupama Sharma, Mr. Akshay Girish Ringe (AOR), Ms. Asmita Singh (AOR), Mr. K.M. Nataraj (A.S.G.), Mr. Piyush Beriwal, Mr. B.K. Satija, Ms. Mrinal Elkar Mazumdar, Mr. Mukesh Kr. Verma, Mr. Neeraj Kr. Sharma, Ms. Indira Bhakar, Mr. Varun Chugh, Mr. Bhuvan Kapoor, Mr. Vatsal Joshi, Mr. Krishna Kant Dubey, Mr. Shashwat Parihar, Mr. Shreekant Neelappa Terdal (AOR), Mr. Raghav Sharma, Mr. Anuj Udupa, Mr. Sarthak Karol, Mr. Mili Joy Baxi, Mr. Arjun Garg (AOR), Ms. Arushi Kulshrestha, Ms. Mrinmoyee Das, Mr. Mukesh Kumar Maroria (AOR), Mr. Shiv Mangal Sharma, A.A.G. Mr. Shivansh B. Pandya, Ms. Nidhi Jaswal (AOR), Mr. Avneesh Arputham, Mr. Ankit Sharma, M/S. Arputham Aruna And Co (AOR), Mr. Amit Sharma (AOR), Mr. Dipesh Sinha, Ms. Pallavi Barua, Ms. Aparna Singh, Mr. Amit Sharma (A.A.G.), Mr. Surjeet Singh (GA), Mr. Harmeet Singh Ruprah (AOR), Mr. Abhinav Shrivastava, Mr. Apoorv Shukla (AOR), Mr. Kedar Nath Tripathy (AOR), Mr. Gopal Jha (AOR), Mr. Shreyash Bhardwaj, Mr. Sawan Datta, Ms. Shireesha Sharma, Ms. Shreya Singh, Mr. Saurabh Singh, Mr. Guntur Pramod Kumar (AOR), Ms. Prerna Singh, Mr. Dhruv Yadav, Mr. Partha Sil (AOR), Mr. Utkarsh Dwivedi, Mr. Srijit Datta, Ms. Rashmi Nandakumar (AOR), Ms. Yashmita Pandey, Ms. Devina Sehgal (AOR), Mr. Yatharth Kansal, Mr. Shuvodeep Roy (AOR), Mr. Saurabh Tripathi, Mr. Deepayan Dutta, Mr. Chirag Kr. Golchha, Mr. Divyakant Lahoti (AOR), Ms. Madhur J., Mr. Uddyam Mukherjee (AOR), Ms. Vishakha (AOR), Mr. Utkarsh Raj Sahay, Mr. Abhishek Atrey (AOR), Mr. Vikas Negi, Ms. Vidyottma Jha, Mr. Brijesh Kumar, Mr. Jagdeep Sharma, Mr. V Balachandran, Mr. Siddharth Naidu, M/S. Ksn & Co. (AOR), Ms. Enakshi Mukhopadhyay Siddhanta (AOR), Ms. Nidhi Mittal (AOR), Mr. Sarad Kumar Singhania (AOR), Mr. Ahanthem Henry, Mr. Ahanthem Rohen Singh, Mr. Mohan Singh, Mr. Aniket Rajput, Ms. Khoisnam Nirmala Devi, Mr. Yeshu Mehta, Mr. Tanay Hegde, Mr. Kumar Mihir (AOR), Mr. Amit Pai (AOR), Ms. Pankhuri Bhardwaj, Ms. Bhavana Duhoon, Ms. Ananya Mehrotra, Ms. Patil Rekha Chandra Gouda (AOR), Mr. Pukhrambam Ramesh Kumar (AOR), Mr. Karun Shamra, Ms. Anupama Ngangom, Ms. Rajkumari Divyasana, Mr. Debojit Borkakati (AOR), Mr. Avijit Mani Tripathi (AOR), Mr. Z.h. Isaac Haiding, Mr. Daniel Stone Lyngdoh, Ms. Marbiang Khongwir, Ms. Preeti Sehrawat, Mr. Mohammad Aslam (AOR), Mr. Milind Kumar (AOR), Mr. Shekhar Raj Sharma, A.A.G., Mr. Samar Vijay Singh (AOR), Ms. Nidhi Narwal, Ms. Srishti Jain, Mr. Vikrant Malwal, Ms. Sabarni Som, Ms. Shubhra Singh, Mr. Sahil Tagotra (AOR), Ms. Shreya Kasera, Mr. Rakesh Talukdar, Mr. Abhishek Pandey, Mr. Bharat Bagla, Mr. Siddharth Dharmadhikari, Mr. Aaditya Aniruddha Pande (AOR), Mr. Shrirang B. Varma, Mr. Sanjai Kumar Pathak (AOR), Mrs. Shashi Pathak, Mr. Arvind Kumar Tripathi, Ms. Anamika Mishra, Mr. Ashwarya Sinha (AOR), Mr. Sameer Abhyankar (AOR), Mr. Aakash Thakur, Mr. Aryan Srivastava, Ms. Yachna Sharma, Ms. Disha Singh (AOR), Ms. Eliza Barr, Ms. Akansha, Ms. Anjali Saxena, Mr. Govind Sharma, Mr. Saanil Patnayak, Mr. Shibashish Misra (AOR), Mr. Manav Sabharwal, Ms. Shivangi Gupta, Mr. Harshad V. Hameed (AOR), Mr. Mrigank Prabhakar (AOR), Ms. Sakshi Banga, Ms. Charvi Reddy, Ms. Swati Ghildiyal (AOR), Ms. Deepanwita Priyanka, Ms. Neha Singh, Mr. Adarsh Dubey, Mr. Dhirendra Kumar Mishra, Mr. Md. Sheikh Khalid Saifullah, Ms. Shanta Pandey, Mr. Balajee D. Kotgire, Mr. Rameshwar Prasad Goyal (AOR), Mr. Aravindh S. (AOR), Mr. Vansh Malik, Mr. Shovan Mishra (AOR), Ms. Bipasa Tripathy, Mr. Shlok Luthra, Mr. Shivansh Bharatkumar Pandya (AOR), Mr. Chanchal Kumar Ganguli (AOR), Mr. V. K. Biju (AOR), Mr. Bhakti Vardhan Singh (AOR), Ms. Sindoora Vnl (AOR), Ms. Alika Priya, Mr. Varinder Kumar Sharma (AOR), Mr. Piar Singh Rana, Ms. K. Enatoli Sema (AOR), Mr. Amit Kumar Singh, Ms. Chubalemla Chang, Mr. Prang Newmai, Ms. Yanmi Phazang, Mr. Gurmeet Singh Makker (AOR), Mr. Akshay Amritanshu (AOR), Mr. Sarthak Srivastava, Mr. Utkarsh Rai, Mr. Atharve Tiwari
