Overcrowding in prisons; SC asks Centre, states to respond

The Supreme Court today issued notices to the Centre and all state governments on a PIL seeking framing of a policy to grant bail to prisoners facing trial for petty offences punishable with maximum seven years jail term.
"Issue notice. Returnable within five weeks," a bench of justices R M Lodha, J Chelameswar and Madan B Lokur said.
The bench was hearing a petition filed by lawyer Vijay Aggarwal saying undertrials constitute a whopping 64.7 per cent of the total prison population in India. There are over 2.41 lakhs undertrial prisoners in India.
Besides the Ministry of Home Affairs and states, the court also issued a notice to the National Crime Records Bureau on the plea.

"Issue direction to all the respondents (Centre and states) to immediately review the cases of persons undergoing imprisonment as undertrials where maximum sentence is seven years jail term," the petition said.
The persons, who are in jail for more than a year during the trial for such offences, be also released on bail, the plea said.
"The undertrials, who are charged with offences triable by a magistrate and punishable with a jail-term up to seven years, be released on bail during the trial as it would also lessen the burden on the state exchequer," Aggarwal said during the hearing.
The plea for bail should be considered favourably of persons undergoing seven years of imprisonment and also of prisoners who have spent more than one year in prison for offences of cheating and forgery should be released, the lawyer said.