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Supreme Court judge Justice D Y Chandrachud has termed the delay in communicating bail orders to prison authorities as a ”very serious deficiency” and stressed the need to address it on a ”war footing” as it touches the ”human liberty” of every undertrial prisoner.
As per PTI report, Justice Chandrachud was speaking at an online event organised by the Allahabad high court to inaugurate virtual courts and ‘e-Sewa kendras’ to facilitate online legal assistance to litigants.
“A very serious deficiency in the criminal justice system is the delay in the communication of bail orders, which we need to address on war footing. Because this touches upon human liberty of every under-trial, or even a convict who has got suspension of sentence…,” he said.
Recently, Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan, spent an extra day in the Arthur Road jail in Mumbai, despite securing bail from the Bombay high court in the drugs-on-cruise case.
Prior to this, a CJI N V Ramana-led bench had expressed strong displeasure over reports of delay in implementation of bail orders and had said it would set up a ”secure, credible and authentic channel” for transmission of orders. Even in the digital age, ”we are still looking at the skies for the pigeons to communicate orders,” the bench had said
The Supreme Court had then ordered the implementation of a project — Fast and Secure Transmission of Electronic Records (FASTER) — for faster communication and compliance of its orders and had asked all states and union territories to ensure internet facility, with adequate speed, in every jail.
Speaking at the event, Justice Chandrachud referred to one of the initiatives of the Orissa high court which provides for the grant of ”e-custody certificate” to every undertrial prisoner and convict who is undergoing sentence of imprisonment.
”That certificate will give us all the requisite data with regard to that particular under-trial or convict, right from initial remand to the subsequent progress of each case. This will also help us in ensuring that bail orders are communicated as soon as they are made, from the place they are communicated, to the jails for immediate implementation,” he said.
