Delay in dealing with undertrials not to be tolerated 8212; SC

quot;If the status report regarding the undertrials do not come after four weeks, I will summon the chief secretaries of those defaulting states,quot; the Chief Justice observed.

One of the stories narrated by the Chief Justice was of a small boy who was badly beaten up by his employer for stealing three cigarette packets from his shop and then being handed over to police.

Justice Anand said the boy was detained in custody for along time on the ground that there was none to bail him out. He said another case pertained to undertrial prisoners arrested for gambling in public in which the police recovered a total of rupee one and ten paise!

The worst of the stories was that of Ajay Kumar Ghosh, who is in custody for last 37 years in West Bengal on murder charges. His trial was stopped sine die in 1963, a year after he was arrested, to get him treated of chronic schizophrenia. But the affidavit filed by the State government had no other details making the Chief Justice term it as quot;totally unsatisfactoryquot;.

Of the total jail population of 2,57,000 prisoners, around 73 per cent constituting over 1,82,000 were undertrial prisoners, many of whom were booked for petty offences.

Amicus curiae advocate appointed by court to assist in the matter Ranjit Kumar pointed out that the states should create more courts to lessen the burden of pending criminal cases and added in Uttar Pradesh alone, over 1,73,000 sessions cases were pending trial.

Justice Anand said around 1,000 posts in the lower courts and 154 post of judges in the high courts were lying vacant despite recommendations made by the Chief Justices and the Chief Justice of India to the state and central governments.

quot;In many cases, the recommendations made by the Chief Justices of the high courts were shuttling between the state and the central government,quot; he said.

Attorney General Soli J Sorabjee shared the court8217;s concern on the issue and said he would take proper steps with authorities concerned of the state governments to mitigate the plight of undertrials as well as filling up of the posts lying vacant in lower courts and request them to create more courts to cope with the huge pendency.

Coming to the case pertaining to Ajay Kumar Ghosh, who is getting treated at a hospital run by an NGO, the Chief Justice said the affidavit filed by the State Government was singularly silent about the medical reports and the status of Ghosh. The bench directed the state to file a proper affidavit.

The case regarding undertrials was posted for January 20 while the matter pertaining to Ghosh would be heard on December 16.