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The Supreme Court recently flagged non-compliance with the Centre's Standard Operating Procedure for the 'Support to Poor Prisoners' Scheme, directing all States to ensure that District Level Empowered Committees (DLECs) meet regularly and take timely decisions on cases of undertrial prisoners placed before them for consideration of release.

“We have also taken note of the fact that the meetings of the District Level Empowered Committees (DLECs) are not being regularly held, as mandated in the revised SOP dated 02.12.2025. Hence, it is directed that all the DLECs shall meet regularly, as mandated, and also take decisions on the cases that are pending consideration before them. The compliance of the above must be made and reported to the learned Amicus before the next date of hearing.”, the Court directed.

A bench of Justice M.M. Sundresh and Justice Prasanna B. Varale was hearing a miscellaneous application arising out of a lead case of Satender Kumar Antil vs Central Bureau of Investigation 2022 LiveLaw (SC) 577, where the court directed the creation of a mechanism for the release of the eligible undertrial prisoners so that they are not unnecessarily kept in custody.

To help the undertrial prisoners who are languishing in jail for want of money to secure a bond for their release, the Centre has launched a “Support to Poor Prisoners” Scheme aiming to ensure that no prisoner remains incarcerated solely due to financial destitution.

As part of the scheme, which was taken on record by the Court on December 3, 2025, the District Level Empowered Committees (DLECs) were constituted to examine cases of undertrial prisoners and consider their eligibility for release in accordance with the prescribed guidelines and the revised Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).

During the latest hearing that took place on August 18, 2026, Sidharth Luthra, Sr. Adv. and Amicus Curiae in the matter, brought to the Court's attention instances of non-compliance with the directions and suggestions of the Committee, particularly with regard to Punjab and Maharashtra.

The Court was also apprised that DLECs in several instances were not meeting regularly and that cases remained pending without decisions. Data placed before the Court by Uttar Pradesh showed that several cases continued to remain pending before DLECs despite meetings having been held.

The Court further noted that in some cases, consideration of undertrial prisoners' release was being delayed because Financial/Social Status Reports had not been received from the respective District Legal Services Authorities (DLSAs).

“NALSA is directed to ensure that all DLSAs ensure that adequate steps are taken so that cases do not remain pending for want of Financial/Social Status Reports.”, the Court said.

Against this backdrop, the Court issued directions to ensure that the mechanism created for considering the release of eligible undertrial prisoners functions effectively and without avoidable administrative delays.

The compliance of the aforesaid direction was directed to be reported before the next date of hearing on 06.10.2026.

Cause Title: SATENDER KUMAR ANTIL VERSUS CENTRAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION & ANR.

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Appearance:

For Petitioner(s) Mr. Sidharth Luthra, AC/ Sr. Adv. Mr. D. L. Chidananda, AOR Mr. Karl P Rustomkhan, Adv. Mr. Mohd. Osama, Adv. Mr. Rajneesh Sharma, Adv. Mr. Suhail Ahmed, Adv. Petitioner-in-person

For Respondent(s) Mr. Tushar Mehta, SG Mr. Mukesh Kumar Maroria, AOR Mr. Arvind Kumar Sharma, AOR Mr. Yashvardhan, Adv. Mr. Apoorv Shukla, AOR Mr. Aman Panwar, Adv. Mr. Manav Kaushik, Adv. Mr. Aranya Sahay, Adv. Mr. Nakul Shrivastava, Adv. Mr. Mudit Gupta, AOR Mr. Nishant Awana, AOR Ms. Rini Badoni, Adv. Mr. Suraj Kundu, Adv. Mr. Amogh Pandey, Adv. Mr. Ashish Batra, AOR Mr. Ankur Prakash, AOR Ms. K. Enatoli Sema, AOR Mr. Amit Kumar Singh, Adv. Ms. Chubalemla Chang, Adv. Mr. Prang Newmai, Adv. Ms. Yanmi Phazang,, Adv. Mr. Rahul Gupta, AOR Mr. Sarad Kumar Singhania, AOR Mr. Uddyam Mukherjee, AOR Ms. Rooh-e-hina Dua, AOR Mr. Shrirang B. Varma, Adv. Mr. Siddharth Dharmadhikari, Adv. Mr. Aaditya Aniruddha Pande, AOR Mr. Varinder Kumar Sharma, AOR Ms. Manisha Ambwani, AOR Mr. Anjuman Tripathy, AOR Mr. Mohit Singh Sikarwar, Adv. Ms. Amisha Chauhan, Adv. Mr. Vikrant Singh Bais, D.A.G. Mr. Vinayak Sharma, Standing Counsel, Adv. Mr. Ravinder Kumar Yadav, AOR Ms. Gurleen Kaur Waraich, Adv. Mr. Yashvardhan Shah, Adv. Mr. Aditya Jain, AOR Mr. Somanadri Goud Katam, AOR Mr. Sirajuddin, Adv. Mr. Sunny Choudhary, AOR Mr. Shuvodeep Roy, AOR Mr. Saurabh Tripathi, Adv. Mr. Deepayan Dutta, Adv. Ms. Enakshi Mukhopadhyay Siddhanta, AOR Mr. Prashant Bhushan, AOR Ms. Dr Sunita Sharma, Adv. Mr. E. C. Agrawala, AOR Mr. Abhimanyu Tewari, AOR Mr. Pukhrambam Ramesh Kumar, AOR Mr. Karun Shamra, Adv. Ms. Anupama Ngangom, Adv. Ms. Rajkumari Divyasana, Adv. Mr. Aravindh S., AOR Mr. Aadithya Aravindh, Adv. 4 Mr. Anando Mukherjee, AOR Mr. Avneesh Arputham, AOR Mr. Ankit Sharma, Adv. Mr. Malak Manish Bhatt, AOR Mr. Amit Gupta, AOR Ms. Swati Ghildiyal, AOR Ms. Neha Singh, Adv. Mr. Sudarshan Singh Rawat, AOR Mr. Sunny Sachin Rawat, Adv. Mr. Vikas Negi, Adv. Ms. Nidhi Jain, Adv. Mr. Lokesh Sinhal, Sr. A.A.G. Ms. Karishma Malani, A.A.G. Mr. Akshay Amritanshu, AOR Mr. Nikunj Gupta, Adv. Mr. Sarthak Srivastava, Adv. Ms. Patil Rekha Chandra Gouda, AOR Mr. Nikhil Jain, AOR Mr. Arjun Garg, AOR Ms. Aarushi Kulshrestha, Adv. Ms. Muskan Bensla, Adv. Mr. Shaurya Sahay, AOR Mr. Aman Jaiswal, Adv. Ms. Sharvi Sharma, Adv. Mr. Sabarish Subramanian, AOR Mr. Rudraditya Khare, D.A.G. Mr. Harmeet Singh Ruprah, AOR Mr. Aditya Vaibhav Singh Ga, Adv. Mr. Siddharth Shrivastava, Adv. Mr. P. I. Jose, AOR Ms. P S Chandralekha, Adv. Mr. Asit Gupta, Adv. Mr. Virat Shrivastava, Adv. Mr. Pradeep Misra, AOR Mr. Tapesh Kumar Singh, Sr. Adv. Mr. Abhishek Singh, AOR Mr. Akshat Choudhary, Adv. Mr. Guntur Pramod Kumar, AOR Ms. Prerna Singh, Adv. Mr. Dhruv Yadav, Adv. Mr. Abhikalp Pratap Singh, AOR Ms. Aagam Kaur, Adv. Ms. Kashish Jain, Adv. Mr. Siddharth Garg, Adv. Mr. V. N. Raghupathy, AOR Mr. Suvendu Suvasis Dash, AOR Mr. Karan Sharma, AOR Ms. Vishakha, AOR Mr. Utkarsh Raj Sahay, Adv. Ms. Astha Singh, AOR Ms. Shailja Singh, Adv. Mr. Sanjai Kumar Pathak, AOR Mrs. Shashi Pathak, Adv. Mr. Arvind Kumar Tripathi, Adv. Mr. Robin Kumar, Adv. Mr. Nishe Rajen Shonker, AOR Mr. Amit Pai, AOR Ms. Pankhuri Bhardwaj, Adv. Ms. Bhavana Duhoon, Adv. Ms. Ananya Mehrotra, Adv. Mr. Vatsal Joshi, Adv. Mr. Varun Chugh, Adv. Mr. Bhuvan Kapoor, Adv. Mr. Krishna Kant Dubey, Adv. Mr. Piyush Beriwal, Adv. Ms. Indira Bhakar, Adv. Mr. Harish Pandey, Adv. Mr. Shashwat Parihar, Adv. Mr. Yogesh Vats, Adv. Mr. Shreekant Neelappa Terdal, AOR Ms. Sairica Raju, Adv. Mr. Annam Venkatesh, Adv. Ms. Priyanka Das, Adv. Mr. Udai Khanna, Adv. Mr. Mohd. Akhil, Adv. Mr. Padmesh Mishra, Adv. Ms. Shrdha Deshmukh, Adv. Mr. Dr.n Viskamurthy (aor), Adv. Mr. Sanchit Garga, AOR Mr. Rajesh Gulab Inamdar, Adv. Mr. Kunal Rana, Adv. Mr. Shashwat Jaiswal, Adv. Ms. Diksha Arora, Adv. Mr. Bhanu Pratap Singh, Adv. Ms. Oorja Goel, Adv. Mr. Abhay Anil Anturkar, Adv. Mr. Dhruv Tank, Adv. Ms. Surbhi Kapoor, AOR Mr. Sarthak Mehrotra, Adv. Mr. Uday Gautam, Adv. Ms. Aradhya Srivastava, Adv. Mr. Nakul Patwardhan, Adv. Mr. Ajay Pal, AOR Mr. Kunal Chatterji, AOR Ms. Devina Sehgal, AOR Mr. Yatharth Kansal, Adv. Ms. Disha Singh , AOR Mr. Mahfooz Ahsan Nazki, AOR Mr. Prashant Shrikant Kenjale, AOR Ms. Damini Vishwakarma, Adv. Mr. B Dhananjay, Adv. Mr. Ahanthem Henry, Adv. Mr. Ahanthem Rohen Singh, Adv. Mr. Mohan Singh, Adv. Mr. Aniket Rajput, Adv. Ms. Khoisnam Nirmala Devi, Adv. Mr. Yeshu Mehta, Adv. Mr. Tanay Hegde, Adv. Mr. Ravi Kumar Bodhani, Adv. Mr. Kumar Mihir, AOR Mr. Prashant Singh, AOR Mr. Shiv Mangal Sharma, A.A.G. Mr. Saurabh Rajpal, Adv. Ms. Nidhi Jaswal, AOR Mr. T. G. Narayanan Nair, AOR Ms. Samyuktha H Nair, Adv. Mr. Manish Kumar, AOR Mr. Divyansh Mishra, Adv. Mr. Kumar Saurav, Adv. Ms. Rashmi Nandakumar, AOR Ms. Yashmita Pandey, Adv. Mr. Rajiv Kumar Choudhry, AOR Mr. Kunal Mimani, AOR Mr. Amit Sharma, AOR Mr. Maibam Nabaghanashyam Singh, AOR Mr. Parth Awasthi, Adv. Mr. Pashupathi Nath Razdan, AOR Ms. Astha Sharma, AOR Ms. Nidhi Mittal, AOR Mr. B. Karunakaran, AOR Mr. Kamesh Gaud, Adv. Mr. Shishir Kumar Saxena, Adv. Mr. R.n. Pareek, Adv. Mr. Jagmohan Pareek, Adv. Mr. Anil Kulshreshtha, Adv. Mr. K.s. Bhandari, Adv. Mr. Hari Sahteshwar, Adv. Mr. Praveen Swarup, AOR Mr. Avijit Mani Tripathi, AOR Mr. Zh Isaac Haiding, Adv. Mr. T.k. Nayak, Adv. Mr. Daniel Stone Lyngdoh, Adv. Ms. Marbiang Khongwir, Adv. Mr. Sameer Abhyankar, AOR Ms. Yachna Sharma, Adv. Mr. Arushi Chopra, Adv. Mr. Vishal Prasad, AOR Ms. Asmita Singh, AOR Ms. Eliza Barr, Adv. Ms. Akansha, AOR Ms. Anjali Saxena, Adv. Mr. Kaushik Choudhury, AOR Mr. Debojit Borkakati, AOR Ms. Pallavi Langar, AOR Ms. Pragya Baghel, Adv. Mr. Sujeet Kumar Chaubey, Adv. Ms. Anushka Raghunath, Adv. 8 Mr. Nirnimesh Dube, AOR Mr. Lokesh Sinhal, Sr. A.A.G. Mr. Samar Vijay Singh, AOR Ms. Sabarni Som, Adv. Mr. Aman Dev Sharma, Adv. Mr. Nikunj Gupta, Adv. Mr. Gaj Singh, Adv. Mr. Siddharth Raj, Adv. Mr. Asit Gupta, Adv. Mr. Somesh Chandra Jha, AOR M/S. Arputham Aruna And Co, AOR Mr. R. Ayyam Perumal, AOR Mr. Rao Raj Bahadur Singh, Adv. Mr. A. Sai Kumar, Adv. Mr. Zulfiker Ali P.S., Adv. Ms. Anna Oommen, Adv. Mr. Abhay Kumar, AOR Mr. Shagun R., Adv.

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