Snehal Upadhyay-
Published on: September 8, 2021, at 11:12 IST
The Supreme Court granted ad-interim Bail to 97 convicts who were in Jail for over more than 20 years in Agra and Varanasi Central Jails in Uttar Pradesh.
The Court observed that the prisoners were not set free even after the fact that they were entitled to premature release as per the policy which was framed by the State Government itself in the year 2018.
The Division Bench comprising Justices Indira Banerjee and JK Maheshwari was dealing with two petitions regarding the prisoners not yet released which adversely infringes the 2018 policy and was similar to subjecting the prisoners to “illegal detention”.
The Apex Court has issued a notice to the Uttar Pradesh government and has directed to submit its response within three weeks.
The Order reads, “Issue notice returnable in three weeks. Since the petitioners have been in jail for over 20 years, they shall be released on ad interim bail subject to the terms and conditions to be imposed by the trial court to its satisfaction.”
The petition was filed through advocate Rishi Malhotra. The petitioner claimed the premature release of prisoners on the grounds that they were imprisoned for more than 20 years. All the prisoners in the Jail were convicted for the offence of murder.
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