Supreme Court judge Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul while speaking at the launch of a nationwide campaign to expedite the identification and review of prisoners who are eligible for release from jails, said that poor and illiterate people who cannot afford lawyers remains in jail as undertrial prisoners while rich one who afford lawyers gets bail.
“We cannot have a scenario where we perceive that the only punishment which can be delivered is keeping people at the undertrial stage, irrespective of whether the prosecution has the ability to get their conviction ultimately. This is a disturbing trend which I find, where people remain behind bars, under trials, and the presumption is whether they are able to get conviction or not, this is what may be the punishment or sentence”.
“Our responsibility as judges is to ensure that the law is followed in letter and spirit, and it does not discriminate between anyone on the basis of the quality of legal representation they can afford, among other man-made qualifiers. This responsibility is also the bedrock of rule of law and access to justice”.
Further he added that the trend he found disturbing is, where people remain behinds bars, under trials, and the presumption is whether they are able to get conviction or not is may be the punishment or sentence.
“We cannot have a scenario where we perceive that the only punishment which can be delivered is keeping people at the undertrial stage, irrespective of whether the prosecution has the ability to get their conviction ultimately. This is a disturbing trend which I find, where people remain behind bars, under trials, and the presumption is whether they are able to get conviction or not, this is what may be the punishment or sentence”.
He further stated that “Detention today is a view in the context of development. The extensive use of detention before conviction diverts criminal justice resources and exerts financial and employment burden on the accused and their families”
The said campaign is being undertaken by the Supreme Court of India and the (NALSA) National Legal Service Authority) and the executive chairperson of NALSA is Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul.
