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SC says free those with more than half jail term over
R Sedhuraman/Legal Correspondent
Tribune News Service

A Bench headed by Chief Justice RM Lodha said this drill should be followed for two months during October and November as part of the efforts to drastically bring down the number of under-trial prisoners who constituted as much as 60-65 per cent of those put behind the bars.

The apex court passed the order after enlarging the scope of PILs on the problem of non-release of foreign nationals even after completion of their sentence awarded to them. The Bench, which included Justices Kurian Joseph and RF Nariman, asked the trial court judges to send their reports to high courts in November which, in turn, would forward these to the SC.

Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said efforts were on to increase the strength of trial court judges to expedite the disposal of criminal cases and deal with the problem of under-trials languishing in jail for unduly long periods.

The SC said this would take ages as every recruitment process to fill the vacancies took about two years and by the time the process was complete vacancies had cropped up due to retirement.