On Thursday, the Supreme Court remarked that all persons who have completed ten years of sentences and whose appeals will not be heard in the near future should be granted bail unless there are some other reasons to deny the bail.

The observation was made by the Bench of Justices SK Kaul and Abhay Sreenivas Oka while considering a batch of pleas filed by life convicts whose appeals are pending before different High Courts.

In this hearing, the court opined that two steps can be taken in such matters, a) convicts who have completed 10 years of the sentence should be released on bail unless there are other reasons to not do so; b) convicts who have completed 14 years of the sentence should be identified and considered for pre-mature release, irrespective of the fact that whether their appeals are pending or not.

While referring to the issue of decluttering jails, the High Court opined that this exercise should be undertaken immediately.

Observing thus, the court granted the High Courts and State Legal Service committees four months to carry out this exercise and posted the case to the last week of January 2023 for compliance.
The court clarified that the directions made in this matter would also apply to all other High Court on a para materia basis.

Case Title: Sonadhar versus State of Chhattisgarh