The Supreme Court on Friday stated that it has undertaken to frame a system to ensure that bail orders are sent electronically to jail authorities..The Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) NV Ramana and Justices L Nageswara Rao and AS Bopanna made the observation while hearing the suo motu case regarding delay in releasing convicts by prison authorities even after being granted bail by courts..The top court noted took exception to the fact the prisons do not release inmates even after court passes orders to that effect and instead wait for orders to be sent by post. "In this age of information and communication technology, we are still looking at the skies for pigeons to communicate orders," CJI Ramana said. "Prisoners are waiting for Supreme Court orders to be sent by post. We had ordered release in some matters and they were not released since they did not receive authentic copy of orders. This is too much," he added. .Elaborating on the system, the Court said, "This Court is contemplating to adopt the procedure termed as FASTER (Fast and Secured Transmission of Electronic Records) System, for transmission of e-authenticated copies of the Judgments /final orders/interim orders to the concerned Courts / Tribunals and other duty holders for execution. This Court will make an endeavour to implement the said system at the earliest," reads the order. .Justice Rao added, "The idea of this order is to send the order copies of this court via a secured route. This will be taking care of security.".The top court stated that to implement FASTER and enable the same, the bench would like to know from the State Governments/Union Territories the details of whether efficient internet facilities are available in their respective prisons. "If not, they are directed to suggest alternative if any" reads the order. The court has issued notice to Centre and all states and Union Territories..Attorney General KK Venugopal stated that the idea of the top court was "very progressive.".The Court has also directed all states to answer whether jails in states have proper internet facility since it will be needed to access the secure system for transmission of orders being put in place..Recently, the Supreme Court had granted interim bail to 13 convicts lodged in Agra Central Jail.The order was passed on July 8 but the convicts walked out of jail after four days, since the prison authorities stated that they did not receive the certified copy of the order by post.The convicts had spent between 14 and 20 years in prison despite being juveniles at the time of committing the crimes..Supreme Court grants interim bail to 13 convicts declared as juveniles seeking release after spending 13-22 years in regular jail.Incidentally, after the Supreme Court granted bail to the 13 convicts on July 8, Advocate Rishi Malhotra, representing the convicts, had appeared before a Bench headed by Justice Indira Banerjee and highlighted that the prisoners were yet to be released. Subsequently, on June 12, they were released.As a suggestion, Malhotra had told the Court that there could be a practice of the Supreme Court Registrar e-mailing the order to the concerned jail superintendent so that the communication is faster and convicts are released at the earliest.Justice Banerjee had assured that the matter would be taken up on the administrative side..[Read Order]
The Supreme Court on Friday stated that it has undertaken to frame a system to ensure that bail orders are sent electronically to jail authorities..The Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) NV Ramana and Justices L Nageswara Rao and AS Bopanna made the observation while hearing the suo motu case regarding delay in releasing convicts by prison authorities even after being granted bail by courts..The top court noted took exception to the fact the prisons do not release inmates even after court passes orders to that effect and instead wait for orders to be sent by post. "In this age of information and communication technology, we are still looking at the skies for pigeons to communicate orders," CJI Ramana said. "Prisoners are waiting for Supreme Court orders to be sent by post. We had ordered release in some matters and they were not released since they did not receive authentic copy of orders. This is too much," he added. .Elaborating on the system, the Court said, "This Court is contemplating to adopt the procedure termed as FASTER (Fast and Secured Transmission of Electronic Records) System, for transmission of e-authenticated copies of the Judgments /final orders/interim orders to the concerned Courts / Tribunals and other duty holders for execution. This Court will make an endeavour to implement the said system at the earliest," reads the order. .Justice Rao added, "The idea of this order is to send the order copies of this court via a secured route. This will be taking care of security.".The top court stated that to implement FASTER and enable the same, the bench would like to know from the State Governments/Union Territories the details of whether efficient internet facilities are available in their respective prisons. "If not, they are directed to suggest alternative if any" reads the order. The court has issued notice to Centre and all states and Union Territories..Attorney General KK Venugopal stated that the idea of the top court was "very progressive.".The Court has also directed all states to answer whether jails in states have proper internet facility since it will be needed to access the secure system for transmission of orders being put in place..Recently, the Supreme Court had granted interim bail to 13 convicts lodged in Agra Central Jail.The order was passed on July 8 but the convicts walked out of jail after four days, since the prison authorities stated that they did not receive the certified copy of the order by post.The convicts had spent between 14 and 20 years in prison despite being juveniles at the time of committing the crimes..Supreme Court grants interim bail to 13 convicts declared as juveniles seeking release after spending 13-22 years in regular jail.Incidentally, after the Supreme Court granted bail to the 13 convicts on July 8, Advocate Rishi Malhotra, representing the convicts, had appeared before a Bench headed by Justice Indira Banerjee and highlighted that the prisoners were yet to be released. Subsequently, on June 12, they were released.As a suggestion, Malhotra had told the Court that there could be a practice of the Supreme Court Registrar e-mailing the order to the concerned jail superintendent so that the communication is faster and convicts are released at the earliest.Justice Banerjee had assured that the matter would be taken up on the administrative side..[Read Order]
