Overcrowding in court: Won't hear case, Bombay HC judge warns

MUMBAI: Irked with overcrowding in the courtroom, a senior judge of Bombay High Court on Monday warned of not taking up any case for hearing if social distancing norms were not followed.

A division bench headed by Justice S SShinde, which hears criminal cases, after seeing the crowd in his courtroom, asked staff to tell police officers, advocates and litigants to wait outside. "Don't crowd in court .... or else we will discharge the entire board and not hear any case," Justice Shinde said.

He said overcrowding and not maintaining social distancing norms were in breach of the standard operating procedure laid down by HC at the time of resumption of physical hearing amid the COVID-19 pandemic. "Standard operating procedure and social distancing is for everyone's health and safety. We (judges) are sitting at a distance," Justice Shinde said.

He referred to the incident of 60 advocates testing positive for COVID-19 at Amravati district in Maharashtra. "Fortunately, we have not had any untoward incident here. We are going in the right direction and we don't want to go back to hearing cases virtually," Justice Shinde said. He asked everyone, including lawyers, to wear masks at all times.

Justice Gautam Patel of HC had last month issued a notice complaining of overcrowding in court and had directed everyone to strictly adhere to safety norms.

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Monday directed 2,318 undertrial prisoners, who were granted interim bail by the trial courts here amid the COVID19 pandemic, to surrender in jail within 15 days.

The apex court said that 356 prisoners, who were earlier granted interim bail by the Delhi High Court in view of the pandemic, would also surrender in jail within 15 days from today. A bench comprising Justices L Nageswara Rao and S Ravindra Bhat passed the directions while hearing the pleas, including an appeal filed by 'National Forum on Prison Reforms' (NFPR) against the October 20 last year direction of the Delhi High Court which had said that its blanket order extending all interim stays and bails granted prior to and during the COVID-19 lockdown would not remain in effect after October 31, 2020. Advocate Gaurav Agrawal, who is assisting the top court as an amicus curiae in a separate matter related to inhuman conditions in prisons, told the bench that he would submit a report on the issue of overcrowding in jails.

One of the lawyers appearing in the matter said that around 17,000 inmates are lodged in jail in Delhi while the capacity is of 10,000 only.

The bench has listed the matter for further hearing in April. The apex court had on October 29, 2020 stayed the high court direction asking all undertrial prisoners, whose bail period was extended due to the pandemic, to surrender in a phased manner between November 2 and 13 last year.

The apex court had also issued notices to the Delhi government and others seeking their replies on the appeal filed by NFPR. The NFPR has claimed that the high court direction was completely against the spirit of March 23, 2020 order passed by it, brushing aside, without even perusing, the eight recommendations/orders of its own HighPowered Committee (HPC) appointed by the top court.

The plea has alleged that high court order was passed by grossly misunderstanding the data presented to it and wrongly concluding that only three coronavirus cases existed among the 16,000 inmates.

The high court in its order had said that all undertrials whose bail period was extended have to surrender in a phased manner between November 2 and November 13 last year.

The court had said the order would also be applicable to 356 prisoners who were granted interim bail by the high court and they would have to surrender before the jail authorities on November 13 last year.