Pilot Project For Pre-Mature Release Of Life Convicts- 'State Of UP, With Maximum Problem Hasn't Responded': Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has warned that it will summon the Chief Secretary of the State of Uttar Pradesh if it does not respond to the pilot project for pre-mature release of life convicts.The Court noted that the State with the maximum problem, the State of UP has not yet responded, despite the fact that in a different petition the Court had carried out an exercise of 'life convict' cases pending in the High Court for long period of time.The Bench has directed the State of UP has to ensure that necessary information in relation to the pilot project is forthcoming, and has asked Advocate Gaurav Agrawal, appearing on behalf of NALSA to contact the Advocate General appearing in the matters in this regard.The Bench has clarified that if the information is still not given to the NALSA within a month, the Chief Secretary of the State will be asked to appear to ensure that the Court's directions are complied with.The Court has also directed four States -Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka- to implement a pilot project qua the aspect of pre-mature release of life convicts from 1st November 2011 and to furnish a report by February, 2022.A Bench comprising Justice SK Kaul and Justice MM Sundresh has asked the National Legal Services Authority to contact the relevant State Governments to enable the exercise to be carried out.Earlier, the pilot project was directed to be implemented in the States of U.P., Bihar and Chhattisgarh qua the aspect of pre-mature release of life convicts. The Bench observed that The pilot project for pre mature release of convicts as stipulated by Supreme Court through its order dated 7th July has the following four vital aspects:Timely identification of the eligible convicts for premature releaseMaking applications by the eligible convicts with the help of District Legal Services Authority;Timelines for the application procedure and decision on the premature release applications;If the premature release applications are rejected by the State Government, then legal aid will be provided to the said convict to decide whether the said rejection should be challenged in a Court or not.The Bench has noted that pursuant to its earlier direction, the project is on-going in the State of Chhattisgarh, and an exercise is on for pre-mature release of prisoners on remission of their remaining sentence. The outcome of this exercise would be available by the first week of February, 2022 as per the report and the State of Chhattisgarh would furnish the outcome to the NALSA.With respect to State of Bihar, the information has been given but NALSA would need some time to carry out the exercise.The Bench had on March 1st asked the the National Legal Services Authority [NALSA] to take up the task of having a comprehensive guideline on aspect of how the matter of seeking remission after serving minimum sentence as per the respective State policies should be dealt with.Advocates Gaurav Agrawal, Liz Mathew and Devansh A. Mohta are assisting the Court in the present case. Details of the Pilot Project: The following suggestions made by the Amicus in the present matter were approved by the Court as part of the pilot project: Step –I: Identification of life convicts for premature release: Every four months, in January, May and September, the Jail Superintendent of the District or Central Jail will make a list of all eligible life convicts who are entitled for premature release in the next six months. The list will be made as per the eligibility criteria laid down in the State policies.The Jail Superintendent will also send a copy of the list to the concerned DLSA which will assist in applications to be made by such eligible life convicts. The DLSA will also organize legal awareness programmes in jails through its Jail Legal Services Clinics with the aim of informing the inmates about premature release policy and procedures.Step- II. Collection of documents: The Jail Superintendent will collect all the documents and reports which are required to be collected under the State policies and the process of collection of documents will be completed within a maximum period of three months so that the file is completed for forwarding the same to the higher authorities.The Jail Superintendent will forward the same to the concerned authorities within the stipulated time, and the higher authority to whom the proposal is forwarded will collect any remaining documents and forward the proposal to the State Government within a period of one month from the date of receipt of proposal.Step.III- Recommendation by Advisory Board or Sentence Review Board: Since different States have different mechanisms for deciding the premature release applications, the Advisory Board or Jail Headquarters have to make its recommendation to the State Government within three months of the receipt of the documents. Further, the Review Boards may meet once in every quarter to ensure timely decisions of premature release applications.Step...

Pilot Project For Pre-Mature Release Of Life Convicts- 'State Of UP, With Maximum Problem Hasn't Responded': Supreme Court

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