[COVID-19] Supreme Court stays Delhi High Court order refusing to extend interim bail of inmates

The Supreme Court today stayed Delhi High Court order refusing to further extend the interim bail granted to over 2,500 undertrials on account of COVID-19. (National Forum on Prison Reforms v GNCTD).[BREAKING] No more extension of interim orders in civil cases; undertrials in heinous cases to surrender: Delhi High Court.The Court has stayed the High Court's order directing inmates who are involved in heinous crimes and those who were granted interim bail by it to surrender from November 2 onwards. .The order was passed by a three-Judge Bench of Justices Nageshwar Rao, Hemant Gupta and Ajay Rastogi in the Special Leave Petition preferred by National Forum on Prison Reforms. .It was Petitioner's case that while the jails in Delhi have a capacity of 10,026 inmates, at present, it was already housing 15,900 inmates. .The additional 2,674 inmates on account of the non-extension of interim bail orders would take the capacity of prison inmates to 18,574, it was stated. .Interim bail to 3,337 Delhi undertrials extended for 30 days; to surrender from December 2020 onwards: High Powered Committee .The Petitioner also informed the Court that the Director General (Prisons) himself was not in favour of the recall/surrender of inmates as it would increase the risk of the spread of COVID-19 in the jails. .In view of the submissions made by the Petitioner, the Court issued notice to Delhi Government and stayed the surrender of inmates. .Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves with Advocates Ajay Verma, Ritu Kumar, Harini Raghupathy, Ankita Wilson, Satya Mitra appeared for Petitioner. .AOR Chirag M Shroff appeared for the Respondent. .Read the Order: