Delhi High Court registers suo motu case on delay by jail authorities in accepting bail bonds, releasing prisoners

The Delhi High Court recently took suo motu cognisance of the delay by jail superintendents in accepting bail bonds and releasing prisoners who have been granted bail by courts [Court on its own motion v Director General of Prisons, Govt of NCT of Delhi]..In an order passed on February 19, Justice Amit Mahajan observed that the object of granting bail and suspending sentence is to release the accused/convict from imprisonment and it was beyond the Court's understanding as to why jail superintendents were taking one to two weeks for accepting the bail bonds.“In certain cases, interim bails are granted on medical grounds or some other exigencies, as expressed by the applicant. In such a scenario this Court fails to understand why the period of one to two weeks be taken by the Jail Superintendent for accepting the bail bonds,” the Court said.It also added that courts sometimes direct that bail bonds be furnished directly to jail superintendents instead of remitting the prisoner to the trial court. This is done to facilitate immediate release of the prisoner, and delay by jail authorities in such cases cannot be accepted.“The Court while passing bail order at times directs that the Bails bond be directly furnished to the Jail Superintendent. The prisoner is not remitted to the Trial Court in order to facilitate the immediate release. The delay at the instance of the Jail Superintendent in accepting Bail Bonds is not acceptable to the conscience of this Court. Let the matter be registered as sou motu petition and numbered,” the Court ordered. It, therefore, sought responses from the Director General of Prisons and Standing Counsel (Criminal) of Delhi government on the issue..Justice Mahajan took cognisance of the issue while dealing with a modification application filed by a convict whose sentence was suspended on February 8.The Court was told that the suspension of sentence was subject to furnishing a bail bond to the satisfaction of the jail superintendent but the bail bond has not been processed yet.It was alleged that formalities in relation to the acceptance of bail bond by the jail superintendent takes approximately one to two weeks.Additional Standing Counsel (ASC) Nandita Rao appeared for the State of Delhi and said that such instances are an aberration and delay does not generally occur on part of the jail superintendent..The Court noted any order passed by the Court directing release of prisoner from jail is sent directory to the jail authorities through Fast and Secured Transmission of Electronic Records (FASTER) cell and yet delays were happening.It also referred to the principle: "Deprivation of Liberty for a single day is a day too many".Hence, it proceeded to register the matter as a suo motu case..[Read Order]