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Polity & Governance
Mahesh

21/11/24 09:39 AM IST

India’s undertrial prisoners

In News
  • Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that undertrials who have spent more than a third of the maximum prescribed sentence for the crime they are accused of committing should be released before Constitution Day (November 26)
Section 479 of the BNSS
  • Section 479 of the BNSS lays down the “Maximum period for which [an] undertrial prisoner can be detained”.
  • It states that a prisoner who is not accused of offences punishable with death or life imprisonment shall be released on bail if she has “undergone detention for a period extending up to one-half of the maximum period of imprisonment specified for that offence under that law”.
  • This same standard was provided under the previously applicable Section 436A of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (CrPC).
  • But the BNSS has also relaxed the standard further in cases concerning “first-time offenders” — requiring such accused persons to be released on bail after they have spent one-third of the maximum possible sentence in prison.
  • It states, “Provided that where such person is a first-time offender (who has never been convicted of any offence in the past) he shall be released on bond by the Court, if he has undergone detention for the period extending up to one-third of the maximum period of imprisonment specified for such offence under that law”.
  • The provision, however, clarifies that an accused “shall not be released on bail by the Court” if there are pending investigations or trials into more than one offence or in “multiple cases” relating to the same person.
India’s undertrial prisoners
  • According to the National Crime Records Bureau’s report Prison Statistics India 2022 (published in December 2023), of the 5,73,220 people incarcerated in Indian prisons, 4,34,302 are undertrials against whom cases are still pending.
  • That amounts to nearly 75.8% of all prisoners in India.
  • Of the 23,772 women in prisons, 18,146 (76.33%) are undertrials, the report notes.
  • The report does not record how many undertrial prisoners were first-time offenders.
  • As of December 31, 2022, around 8.6% of all undertrial prisoners had been in prison for more than three years.
Source- Indian Express

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