Delhi HC sets up bench to pass judicial orders to extend interim bail of UTPs for 45 days

The Delhi High Court has constituted a division bench for issuing judicial orders to extend the interim bail of 2,177 undertrial prisoners (UTPs) as the relief granted to them to decongest jails in view of the Covid-19 pandemic would start to expire from May 9.

According to the recommendation of a high-powered committee, it would be dangerous to put them back in jail as the coronavirus or Covid-19 pandemic risk still remains high. As per a note issued by the high court registry, Chief Justice D N Patel has given verbal directions to put up the matter before a bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Talwant Singh on Saturday for implementing the recommendation made by the committee.

The committee, headed by Justice Hima Kohli, opined that since the pandemic situation was still the same and there was a paucity of space in jail premises to create a sufficient number of isolation wards for UTPs coming back after expiry of their interim bail, the relief granted to them should be extended by another 45 days.

The committee, which was formed on the order of the Supreme Court to lay down guidelines for decongesting jails and prevent the spread of coronavirus there, was also of the view that moving a separate application on behalf of each of the 2,177 UTPs would be "cumbersome" and lead to wastage of judicial time.

Therefore, it had recommended that the high court be requested to pass a judicial order to extend this period of interim bail of the UTPs by another 45 days from their respective dates of expiry of the relief.

The matter was placed before Chief Justice Patel who issued verbal directions to set up the bench on Saturday, May 9.