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In Re: Contagion of Covid-19 Virus in Prisons (Application by Director General (Prisons), Delhi)

Not available · 2023 INSC 294Decided 24 Mar 2023
Not available
M.R. Shah · C.T. Ravikumar

Background

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Supreme Court had earlier directed states to release thousands of prisoners on emergency parole or interim bail to decongest overcrowded jails, and later extended that relief as the pandemic worsened. By 2022, with the pandemic having subsided, the Court had already ordered these prisoners to surrender within 15 days. The Director General (Prisons), Delhi, filed this application seeking directions because a large number of the released prisoners and convicts (over 4,000 combined) had still not surrendered.

Decision Breakdown

The Court noted that these prisoners had been released solely due to the COVID-19 emergency and overcrowding, not on the merits of their individual cases, and that other states had already recalled similarly released prisoners. It therefore allowed the application, directing all prisoners and convicts who remained on emergency parole or interim bail to surrender before the concerned prison authorities within 15 days. The Court clarified that after surrendering, undertrials could still apply for regular bail and convicts could apply for suspension of sentence, to be decided on the merits by the appropriate courts.

Lesson Learnt

Relief granted during an emergency (such as pandemic-related parole) is tied to that emergency and is not permanent. Once the underlying justification ends, courts can and will require beneficiaries to return to their prior legal status, though this does not shut the door on seeking regular bail through the normal process afterward.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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