Maharashtra: Undertrial, Convict Prisoners Above 65 Years Age To Be Released On Temporary Bail; DSK Among Hundreds Of Hopefuls
Mubarak Ansari
Pune, 14th May 2021: The Maharashtra state legal services authority on May 12 issued a circular addressed to all the Chairman/Principal District Judge and the Secretary, District Legal Services Authority, stating that all the prisoners whether convicted or under trial, considering their alleged nature of offences who are above the age of 65 years are to be released on temporary interim bail.
The Supreme Court of India has said that prison inmates are highly prone to contagious viruses, as the rate of ingress and egress in prisons is very high, especially since persons (accused, convicts, detenus etc.) are brought to the prisons on a daily basis. Apart from them, several correctional officers and other prison staff enter the prisons regularly and so do visitors (kith and kin of prisoners) and lawyers.
On March 23 2020, the Apex court had directed each state/Union Territory to constitute a High Powered Committee (HPC) comprising chairman of the State Legal Services Authority, the principal secretary (Home/Prison) and Director General of prisons, to determine which class of prisoners could be released on parole or an interim bail for such period as might be thought appropriate.
The HPC shall take into account the directions contained in para no.11 in Arnesh Kumar v State of Bihar (2014), the CJI-led bench reiterated this direction, by reminding that the court, being the sentinel on the qui vive of the fundamental rights, needs to strictly control and limit the authorities from arresting accused in contravention of guidelines laid down in Arnesh Kumar. The court had held in this case that police officers should not arrest the accused unnecessarily and magistrates should not authorise detention casually and mechanically. The court applied the direction to all cases where the offence is punishable with imprisonment for a term which may be less than seven years or which may extend to seven years, whether with or without a fine.
On 07/05/2021, the bench directed the High Power Committees (HPCs), in addition to considering the fresh release of prisoners on the basis of the agreed criteria, to forthwith release all the inmates who had been released earlier pursuant to its last year’s order, by imposing appropriate conditions. Those inmates who were granted parole, pursuant to the Supreme Court’s earlier orders, should be again granted parole for a period of 90 days, the bench held.
A Pune based Supreme Court Lawyer, Adv. Aashutosh Srivastava, who is the legal counsel for DS Kulkarni, his wife Hemanti Kulkarni and his sister-in-law Anuradha Purandhare, said, “There is a high risk of transmission of COVID-19 virus to the prison inmates. For the reasons mentioned above, our prisons can become fertile breeding grounds for incubation of COVID-19, the court noted. Thus considering said pandemic situation, the circular and the age of my client DS Kulkarni, I expect he may be released on interim bail.”
