Supreme Court judge Justice Augustine George Masih has called for the adoption of technology-enabled home custody for petty offences and low-risk undertrials to address India’s severe problem of overcrowded prisons.
Speaking at a seminar on correctional justice and skill development in Gurugram on December 6, he said custody must be reimagined and need not always involve confinement behind concrete walls. He emphasised that lawful restraint can also be enforced through GPS-based monitoring and restricted movement within homes.
The concept of home custody involves requiring an accused person to remain within their residence under clearly defined behavioural and movement-related conditions. Justice Masih noted that India can implement systems similar to those used in other countries by tracking movements through technology while reducing the strain on correctional facilities.
India currently does not have a statutory framework that allows home custody for undertrial inmates. The National Security Act of 1980 permits house arrest only as a form of preventive detention at the discretion of the government, and it does not extend to undertrials who remain in prison. Earlier, the 1973 Expert Committee on Legal Aid had recommended less punitive measures for undertrials, including home custody with restrictive conditions to prevent their exposure to hardened criminals, but the idea was never implemented.
The urgency of reform is underscored by the latest Prison Statistics India 2023 report, released by the National Crime Records Bureau in September.
The report shows that 73.5 per cent of India’s 5.3 lakh prisoners are undertrials.
As of December 31, 2023, the country had 1,332 prisons housing 3.84 lakh undertrial inmates.
Delhi’s prisons recorded an alarming 200 per cent occupancy rate, while the national average stood at 120.8 per cent.
The report also highlighted that 1,318 women were living with 1,492 children in prisons and that 44 per cent of inmates were between 18 and 30 years old.
A quarter of all prisoners were not educated, and more than 40 per cent had not studied beyond Class X.
Experts say introducing home custody could be a significant reformative step for India.
Senior advocate Pramod Dubey said the use of technology for low-risk offenders would reduce the burden on prisons and on public funds.
Advocate Abhijit Shankar, who has worked with Tihar Jail, argued that Indian prisons were never designed for petty offenders and that overcrowding exposes first-time inmates to hardened criminals, often worsening criminalisation. He added that any monitoring technology must comply with Article 21 and recent Supreme Court rulings that safeguard privacy. Shankar said technology-enabled home custody could encourage rehabilitation and protect families from disruption, provided it is implemented in phases with strong legal safeguards and adequate training.