COVID-19: Supreme Court directs decongestion of prisons

The Supreme Court on Saturday passed directions for decongesting prisons and ordered forthwith release of all prisoners who were granted bail or parole last year considering the surge of COVID-19 cases in the country.

The bench composed of Chief Justice NV Ramana and Justices L Nageswara Rao and Surya Kant said that those allowed to go out on bail in March last year by the high-powered committees of states and Union Territories, set up following the Supreme Court's order, be granted relief without reconsideration by HPCs to avoid delay.

"Further, we direct that, those inmates who were granted parole, pursuant to our earlier orders, should be again granted parole for a period of 90 days in order to tide over the pandemic," the bench said. They further instructed the committees to consider the release of other prisoners adopting the National Legal Services Authority guidelines and asked the authorities to not arrest mechanically in cases where the maximum sentence is a jail term of seven years.