Supreme Court: Grant Bail to Convicts Who Have Served 10 Years
On Thursday, the Supreme Court of India said that prisoners who have completed 10 years of their sentence and whose appeals are not likely to be heard soon should be granted bail, unless there are strong reasons to deny it.
The order was given by a bench of Justices SK Kaul and Abhay Sreenivas Oka while hearing multiple petitions filed by life convicts whose appeals are still pending in different High Courts.
The Supreme Court made two important suggestions:
- Convicts who have completed 10 years in jail should be given bail, unless there are exceptional reasons not to.
- Convicts who have completed 14 years should be identified for early release, even if their appeals are still pending.
The court said this move is necessary to help reduce the overcrowding in jails and to ensure that justice is not delayed for prisoners waiting for their appeals to be heard.
To implement this decision, the court gave four months’ time to the High Courts and State Legal Services Authorities to act. The case will be reviewed again in the last week of January 2023.
The court also clarified that these directions will apply to all High Courts in India with the same legal background.
This decision came in the case titled Sonadhar vs State of Chhattisgarh.
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