SC threw open the door to the legislature to ponder

Recently the Supreme Court has thrown open the door to the legislature to “ponder” over the idea of placing convicts under house arrest to avoid overcrowding of prisons.

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A Bench of Justices U.U. Lalit and K.M. Joseph, in a judgment, highlighted the “alarming” statistics of prisons. The suggestion is relevant considering the spread of COVID-19.

A few days ago, a Bench, led by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana, issued a series of directions, including the grant of interim bail and parole to prisoners to decongest prisons.

Justice Joseph said the occupancy rate in prisons had climbed to 118.5% in 2019. The court referred to the National Crime Records Bureau’s figures of 2019 to show that 18,86,092 inmates were admitted in jails.

The number of undertrial prisoners in 2019 was 3,30,487, which, in fact, constituted 69.05% of the total number of prisoners. Secondly, a very large sum (₹6818.1 crore) was the budget for prisons.

The “tremendous” overcrowding of prisons and the huge budget were both “relevant in the context of the possibilities that house arrest offers”, the court noted.