Convicts Who've Completed 10 Years Of Sentence, Whose Appeals Won't Be Heard Soon, Should Be Released On Bail Unless There Are Other Reasons : Supreme Court

The Supreme Court of India on Thursday opined that all persons who have completed 10 years of sentence, and whose appeals will not be heard in the near future, should be enlarged on bail, unless there are other reasons to deny them bail.

A division Bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Abhay Shreeniwas Oka was considering a batch of petitions of life convicts in jail whose appeals are pending before various High Courts.

"We can appreciate if any of the parties is delaying the bail itself but short of that, we are of the view, that all persons who have completed 10 years of sentence and appeal is not in near proximity of hearing, with no extenuating circumstances, should be enlarged on bail", the bench dictated in the order. Full copy of the order is yet to be uploaded.

During the hearing today, Advocate Gaurav Agarwal, appointed as amicus curiae, apprised the Bench that in line with the Court's earlier orders to 6 High Courts regarding undertaking the exercise of identifying life sentence convicts, affidavits were filed.

The endeavour, the Court today said, is two-fold:

- First, convicts having undergone more than 10 years imprisonment, unless there are reasons to deny to grant bail,  be granted bail.

- Second, Identification of cases where convicts have completed 14 years of custody, in which event, a case can be referred to the government for considering premature release within a fixed time, irrespective of whether appeals are pending or not.

The Amicus, after analysing the data from these High Courts said that there are 5740 cases appeals by accused in custody, including Division Bench appeals and Single Bench appeals.

In Bihar, there are about 268 convicts – whose cases are being considered for a premature release.

A similar exercise was undertaken by the Orissa and Allahabad High Courts as well, the latter has the highest pendency of appeals – 385 convicts had undergone more than 14 years of custody.

After taking these aspects into account, the Bench observed that the exercise should be undertaken immediately by the respective authorities.

"We have to keep in mind the objective of decluttering jails where without hearing of the appeals, convicts are in custody. The aforesaid exercise has to be undertaken on urgent basis so that the scenario should not prevail where the convict completes the minimum sentence for consideration of remission. That necessity has risen only on account of the fact that the appeals not taken up for hearing."

The Court then granted four months-time to High Courts and State Legal Services Committees to carry out this exercise. The matter will be next taken up for compliance in the last week of January.

The Court said the directions would be applicable to Patna High Court and on a para materia basis, to even the other High Courts too. However, in order to carry out this exercise the data would have to be complied, of those in custody for more than 10 and 14 years respectively, the Bench added.

Yesterday, the Bench was told that Plea bargaining, compounding of offences and probation of offenders are the Pre-trial provisions which need to be effectively implemented.

Case Title: Sonadhar v. State of Chhattisgarh SLP(Crl) No. 529/2021

Citation : 2022 LiveLaw (SC) 788

Post-conviction bail : We are of the view that all persons who have completed 10 years of sentence and appeal is not in proximity of hearing with no extenuating circumstances should be enlarged on bail.

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