‘Waiting for pigeons to give message?’ SC hits out at delays
NEW DELHI: In the age of technology, “we are still looking at the skies for pigeons to communicate orders”, the Supreme Court said on Friday, rebuking jail authorities for delaying the release of prisoners by insisting bail orders be sent through post. The court took suo motu cognisance of the issue.
NEW DELHI: In the age of technology, “we are still looking at the skies for pigeons to communicate orders”, the Supreme Court said on Friday, rebuking jail authorities for delaying the release of prisoners by insisting that bail orders be sent through post.
The court took suo motu cognisance of the issue after it came to its notice that jail authorities at an Agra prison in Uttar Pradesh took four days to release 13 convicts who had been granted bail on July 8.
“We are in a time when we use information technology tools, and we are still looking at the skies for pigeons to communicate orders... It is too much that prisoners have to wait even after the Supreme Court has granted bail as jails are insisting on the bail order to come by post,” said the three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) NV Ramana.
To ensure “fast” and “secure” communication about bail orders, the bench proposed using a new tool that is under consideration of the top court.
The bench, also comprising justices L Nageswara Rao and AS Bopanna, said: “The scheme being proposed is called ‘Fast and Secured Transmission of Electronic Records’ (FASTER). We are looking at communicating the bail orders passed by us directly to the jail authorities.”
Details of the proposed new channel of communication were not immediately available.
The bench also directed the secretary general of the Supreme Court to prepare a report within two weeks after taking inputs from solicitor general Tushar Mehta, and courtappointed amicus curiae senior advocate Dushyant Dave, along with data from states.
“If this scheme goes through, our orders can be securely transmitted,” the bench said. The court is keen on implementing the scheme within a month, CJI Ramana added.
While hearing the suo motu petition on Friday, CJI Ramana referred to the July 8 order of the court.
A bench of justices Indira Banerjee and V Ramasubramanian directed prison authorities of the Agra Central Jail to release 13 convicts who were found to be juveniles at the time that the crime was committed. The jail authorities in Agra waited till the bail order arrived by post and released the convicts — who had already served 14 to 22 years in prison — on the night of July 12.
Informed about this delay by the convicts’ advocate Rishi Malholtra, the top court on July 13 agreed to take up the matter on the administrative side for passing necessary directions, and on the same day, registered the suo motu (on its own) petition on the instruction of the chief justice.
Attorney general KK Venugopal agreed with the court’s view and said that the insistence on receiving bail orders by post was “wrong and very bad”.
Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, representing the central government, pointed out at the hearing that there was a possibility that prisoners may obtain fake bail orders to secure their release.
But “if the jail authorities can verify it (order) from the official website of the court, there should be no concern over its authenticity,” Mehta added.