'In This Age Of Information Technology, We're Still Looking At The Skies For Pigeons To Communicate Orders' : CJI Ramana

The Chief Justice of India NV Ramana on Friday said that the Supreme Court is thinking of evolving a system to electronically transmit bail orders directly to prisons so that prison authorities will not delay the release of prisoners awaiting certified copy of the order.

"We are in times of use of technology. We are under contemplation of a scheme called FASTER : Fast and Secure Transmission of Electronic Record. It is meant to communicate all orders to concerned jail authorities without waiting", the CJI said.

"In this age of information and communication technology, we are still looking at the skies for the pigeons to communicate the orders", the CJI said.

The CJI added, "I am directing Secretary General of the Supreme Court to place report in 2 weeks time so we'll try to implement the scheme in a month".

The CJI made these remarks when a bench led by him was hearing a suo moto case taken on the issue of delay in the release of prisoners after release of bail.

"This court has passed orders releasing prisoners but they were not released saying they haven't received copies of orders. This is too much", the CJI said when the case was taken.

"This is wrong", Attorney General for India KK Venugopal replied.

The Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta also said that it was a wrong practice. But the SG added that here are instances where fake and fabricated orders are given. So jail authorities required authenticated copies, he said.

"There should be a direction that the order uploaded in site is treated as the authenticated copy", the SG said.

Following this, the CJI made the remarks regarding the plan of the Supreme Court to evolve an e-system for transmission of bail orders.

"Before that I want State government to respond as all jails must have Internet connectivity otherwise transmission becomes impossible", the CJI said.

Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave was asked by the CJI to assist the court as an amicus curiae.

Justice L Nageswara Rao and AS Bopanna were the other members of the bench. 

Exasperated at the increasing number of reports regarding delay in releasing prisoners even after bail has been granted, the Supreme Court took suo moto cognizance of the issue.

Christened as FASTER (Fast and Secure Transmission of Electronic Records), the innovative scheme is conceived for delivery of orders to concerned prisons, District Courts, High Courts, as the case may be, for instantaneous delivery of orders passed by apex court through a secure communication channel. This will save time and effort and will ensure that there are no delays in implementation of the orders passed by the Supreme Court. Secretary General of Supreme Court will submit a comprehensive report formulating a scheme on this initiative of the CJI within two weeks.

Case title - IN RE DELAY IN RELEASE OF CONVICTS AFTER GRANT OF BAIL [SMW(C) No. 4/2021]

Click here to read/download the order