SC expresses concern over large number of undertrial prisoners, over-crowded jails

Concerned that as many as 67 per cent prisoners in the "overcrowded" jails across India are undertrials, the Supreme Court Tuesday sought urgent steps for early conclusion of cases against them.

It also directed the undertrial review committees (UTRCs) to meet every month for the first six months of 2019 to review the cases of undertrial inmates and submit reports to the legal services authorities in states.

Set up in every district, UTRCs deliberate and recommend the release of undertrial prisoners as also of those convicts who have undergone the sentence or are entitled to be released due to bail or remission granted to them.

A bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur took note of the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) data placed before it that while the holding capacity of jails in the country as on December 31 last year was around 3.78 lakh, the actual number of inmates lodged was 4.19 lakh.

The bench, also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Hemant Gupta, said the state legal services authorities would compile the data received from the UTRCs and send the report to NALSA.

The top court is hearing a matter relating to inhuman conditions in 1,382 prisons across India. It is also seized of a separate matter related to speedy trials for undertrial prisoners.

The court noted that as per NALSA's data, the number of inmates in jails were in excess of the holding capacity of the prisons and "overcrowding was particularly acute" in states like Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand.

"We have been given to understand that undertrial prisoners constitute of 67 per cent of prison population," it said. "Number of undertrial prisoners are very, very large."