New Delhi: The Supreme Court Friday ordered the release of all undertrials who have already spent in jail half of the period of the sentence for the crime for which they have been charged with.
The apex court bench headed by Chief Justice R.M. Lodha said that judicial officers of the districts will visit the jails under their jurisdiction once a week to look into such cases and order the release of such undertrial prisoners.
The court said that two months' drive, starting from Oct 1, will see a sessions judge and judicial officers subordinate to him visiting the jails under their jurisdiction to examine such cases and ordering the undertrials' release.
Ordering the next date of hearing of the case Dec 8, the court said that on the completion of the two-month exercise, the registrar generals of the high courts will send the report on the exercise and undertrial prisoners released to the secretary general of the Supreme Court.
The apex court also expressed concern over lack of budgetary support to judiciary and asked the Centre to grant more funds to create infrastructure.
It has directed the Centre to place before it a road map for fast-tracking criminal justice delivery system. The observations came while the court was hearing a PIL on Kashmiri undertrials languishing in jails.
Earlier on August 29, the court had termed the issue of undertrials languishing in jails as 'serious' and had asked the Centre to convene a meeting of home secretaries of all the states to find a solution to the problem.
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