New Delhi (ILNS): The Delhi High Court today ruled that inmates who have been out of jail for the last several months on interim bail or parole in the Corona epidemic will have to go back to jail soon. The recent Court observation came as the number of infected people in the capital’s jails now stands at just 3. The court will pass a judgement on this soon.
The interim bails or paroles had been extended by the court on a number of occasions and with the number of infections now coming down the court wants to take a relook at its order.
The High Court made this remark when it was stated on behalf of the Director General of Prisons that 6,700 inmates are out of jail, benefitting from the periodic extensions of interim bail or parole. The DG told the full bench of the Chief Justice D. N. Patel, Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Talwant Singh that Tihar, Rohini and Mandoli jails have a capacity of 10,000 prisoners, but currently there are 15,900 prisoners. At this the bench said that now the chapter of Corona should be finished, let these people surrender or go back to jail.
The bench said: “We had passed the order in view of the epidemic, our order has no other purpose than to reduce the jail congestion.”
The bench said that interim bail and extension of parole order could continue for reasons other than the Corona epidemic. The bench held that it will again go back to the January-February situation this year. The bench further added that it would soon decide whether to continue the order to extend the interim bail or parole period of the prisoners by the same order, which is due to the Corona epidemic.
The bench made this remark while hearing an application seeking withdrawal / revision of the orders of July 13 and July 24. In the said order, the bench had extended the period of interim bail and parole till October 31, giving relief to all the prisoners who were released from jail on interim bail / parole before or after March 16.
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This application has been filed on behalf of prosecutor Amit Prasad, a special person appointed to advocate cases related to Delhi violence. He has said in the application that prisoners of violence and other cases are abusing both the orders of the High Court.
At the same time, the prisoners are seeking bail due to family sickness or some other reasons and are then successful in extending the interim bail period by citing the said order of the High Court. The High Court had said that it would not allow its orders to be misused.
The bench had said that if the order is being misused, it will withdraw its extension order. The High Court had said that if the prisoners are misusing the order, then we will stop it and then they will have to suffer.