New Delhi: Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind has filed an application in the Supreme Court seeking conditional bail for eligible prisoners and for the ones who have been affected by COVID-19. The petitioner says that releasing them would help in containing the corona as social distancing norms are not followed inside the jails.
The intervening application has been filed in the matter where the apex court bench led by the Chief Justice Of India, SA Bobde, had directed the states to release certain category of inmates amid the corona pandemic.
The petitioner contends that though the court had directed release of prisoners but they are not being released immediately. In Andhra Pradesh out of 1350 identified prisoners only 259 have been released, in Gujarat, none out of 122 identified prisoners have been released, in Kerala 450 out of 1000 prisoners, in MP 6033 out of 12,000 and in Maharashtra 2520 out of 11000 prisoners have been released, informed the organisation.
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The organisation suggests that the prisoners are in the custody of the state and they can be temporarily released by them. While deciding the category the priority should be given to those who have been released on parole at least once and have reported back to the prison without flouting any condition of the parole.
Further, it suggests that prisoners above 50 years of age, convicts who have completed sentences but haven't been released due to non-payment of fines, convicts who are sentenced up to 7 years and the ones whose sentence would be completed in the next two months can be considered for release.
