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What's the article about?
- It talks about two issues – the issue of overcrowding of prisons and the higher judiciary’s intervention in granting bail.
Relevance:
- GS2: Structure, Organization and Functioning of the Executive and the Judiciary; Prelims
What's the crux of the article?
- On the occasion of the National Law Day celebrations, President Draupadi Murmu made a call to the government and the judiciary to address the issue of overcrowding of prisons.
- In another case, Union Law Minister Rijiju argued against the higher judiciary intervening in bail decisions, arguing that only trial courts should make bail decisions.
- Thus in this article, the writer analyses these two issues.
Analysis:
- The main reason for overcrowding of the prisons is prolonged detention of under-trial prisoners.
- Three out of four prisoners being undertrials.
- As of December 31, 2021, around 80 percent of prisoners were confined for periods up to a year.
The report states that an overwhelming 95 percent of undertrials released in 2021 were granted bail by courts while a mere 1.6 per cent were released on acquittal by court. - It shows that the sluggish pace at which trial courts work to reach a final decision cannot keep up with the increasing number of undertrials.
- Obviously, if prison overcrowding is to be brought down then the under-trial population has to be reduced drastically. Of course, this cannot happen without the courts and the police working together.
- To tackle the issue of the overcrowding of the prisons, the government is going to build new prisons. Criticising this move the President argued that, “If we are moving towards progress as a society, then why do we need new jails? We should be closing down the existing one”.
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Prison Statistics India 2021 – Key findings
What is meant by bail?
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Higher judiciary’s intervention in granting bail
- There was a sharp exchange on this issue between Union law minister Kiren Rijiju and the Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud.
- Rijiju had made a case against the higher judiciary’s intervention in granting bail and said only trial courts ought to decide granting of bails.
- In response, the CJI said that higher courts are flooded with bail cases because of a “sense of fear” in the lower judiciary.
Way Forward:
- The Dickensian idea of building more prisons is not the solution, as President Murmu rightly said. The judiciary, lawmakers, and government must act quickly to address this crisis.
