58 Habeas Corpus petitions pending before Supreme Court, oldest is from 2005: RTI response

There are fifty-eight Habeas Corpus petitions pending before the Supreme Court of India, the top court's response to a request under the Right to Information Act (RTI Act) revealed. .Out of those pending petitions, the oldest is from January 2005, the RTI response said. ."As per the data available in ICMIS, the total number of Habeas Corpus cases pending in Supreme Court of India as on February 14, 2021 is 58. Further, the oldest such case is with date of filing January 24, 2005," the response of Central Public Information Officer, Ajay Agrawal stated. .The request for information under RTI was made by journalist and RTI activist, Saurav Das. .Das had also sought details of the total number of cases, category wise, that have not been listed for the last 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, 4 years, 5 years and 10 years. .However, such information, the RTI response said, cannot be made available as the same is not maintained in the manner sought by the applicant. .The most recently filed habeas corpus petitions pending before the Supreme Court include the plea by a 42-year-old spiritual practitioner sought the release of his 21-year-old partner from her parents, and the petition filed on behalf of journalist Siddique Kappan, was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Police last year en route to covering the Hathras gangrape case..During a webinar held last year, former Supreme Court judge, Justice Madan Lokur urged courts to be more liberal when dealing with habeas corpus petitions..Courts must be liberal while dealing with Habeas Corpus cases: Retired Justice Madan Lokur.[Read RTI response]