Release convicts serving life term on bail till appeals are heard: SC to HC

THE SC ASKED THE ALLAHABAD HIGH COURT TO TAKE A POLICY DECISION WITHIN FOUR WEEKS AND REPORT TO IT BY NOVEMBER 16

NEW DELHI: The Allahabad high court will have to devise a policy within a month to release on bail convicts serving life sentences and also others till their appeals or bail petitions are heard, the Supreme Court said on Tuesday. There are over 183,000 such appeals pending before the HC.

“If appeal is pending at high court stage and a convict has undergone eight years sentence, exceptions apart, in most cases bail will be the rule,” an apex court bench of justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and MM Sundresh said. “But despite this, cases are not coming up for consideration before the high court. We are also not clear how many years it will take for the bail to be heard.”

In these circumstances, the Supreme Court asked the Allahabad

high court to take a policy decision within four weeks and report to it by November 16.

“It is for the high court to consider that in all cases where a life convict has undergone sentence of eight years, the case can be considered for grant of bail,” the SC said. “There may be cases other than life convicts where half of sentence undergone can be basis for grant of bail.”

The bench passed the order while hearing a batch of 18 petitions filed by life convicts who had undergone 10 years or more in jail, with neither their appeal nor bail petitions being heard by the Allahabad high court.

The Uttar Pradesh government, represented by additional advocate general Garima Prasad, had in August submitted suggestions to streamline the process of early release of prisoners after it had identified 7,214 convicts in various jails who have served 10 years in prison and had appeals pending before the high court.

Uttar Pradesh agreed to consider bail for those life convicts who had served 10 years, or in cases where the appeal has not been heard for seven years, without any likelihood of them being taken up in the near future.

The high court, represented by advocate Yashvardhan, told the apex court that these suggestions were acceptable to it.