Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
WP/8573W/2018 on 13 December, 2019
1 13.12.2019
Item no. 223 Aloke/Dd WP 8573 (W) of 2018 With WP 7252 (W) of 2018 With WP 4510 (W) of 1997 Mr. Tapas Kr. Bhanja, learned Amicus Curiae Mr. Kishore Dutta, ld. Advocate General Mr. Debasish Ghosh ... For the State.
Mr. Raghunath Chakraborty ... ...For the APDR Mr. Kallol Mondal Mr. Krishan Ray Ms. Amrita Chel ... ...For the SLSA Mr. Saikat Banerjee Mr. Arnab Ray .. ...For the High Court Administration In Re : Under trial prisoners under Section 436A CR.PC.
One of the issues that arises for decision in this matter relates to the presence of under trial prisoners in the different correctional homes of the State of West Bengal and who may be eligible for orders in their favour under Section 436A of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Hearing the learned Amicus Curiae, learned Government Advocate, learned counsel for the High Court Administration and the West Bengal SLSA, we are of the view that an order for release in terms of Section 436A Cr.P.C. on such conditions as could be prescribed in terms of that provision is a matter 2 within the jurisdiction of the Court concerned. Therefore, if applications are not presented and orders are not obtained for such release, it will be counter- productive to the efforts taken by this Court by the issuance of order dated 27.09.2018 in WP 8573 (W) of 2018 with WP 7252 (W) of 2018.
Going by the submissions made before us today, we do not see much has been done by the Board of Visitors of the Correctional Homes to instil confidence in the minds of the Court that there are no under trial prisoners languishing in the prisons from among those who would have been entitled for consideration for release in terms of the provisions of Section 436A Cr.PC.
Contextually, more effective legal aid and access to justice through the Criminal Justice Delivery System should be ensured in such cases with more effective involvement of the DLSAs concerned by deploying requisite panel lawyers and also, if needed, to be assisted by paralegal volunteers. Therefore, the Member Secretary, West Bengal SLSA is directed to require the Chair- persons of all the Districts Legal Services Authorities of the State of West Bengal to ensure that a team of two panel lawyers assisted by two paralegal volunteers of the choice of the Chair-persons of the DLSAs concerned are required to visit each correctional home under that DLSA and ascertain from the records of that correctional home as to the total number of under trial prisoners in such correctional home. On a case to case basis, the panel lawyers will consider as to how many such under trials are eligible to be considered for requisite order under Section 436A Cr.P.C. Obviously, if such under trials are ascertained, the DLSAs concerned will ensure that applications under Section 436A Cr.P.C. are made before the Court concerned on a case to case basis most immediately. The consideration of that application by the Court concerned will not, obviously, preclude the eligibility of the Public Prosecutor to object to a premature release in such cases as would fall under the first proviso to Section 436A Cr.P.C.
The Member Secretary, West Bengal SLSA will obtain an Action Taken Report from the different DLSAs and place a comprehensive report before this Court by the next date of hearing.
3In Re : Life convicts who are stated to have served more than 14 years of imprisonment.
Through the earlier orders/directions were issued to ensure that requisite steps are taken by the judiciary and the Government to take a final call on the applications pending for the remission of life convicts who have completed 14 years of sufferenence of sentence. The opinion from the convicting or the confirming Court, as the case may be, had to be obtained in good number of cases. The learned counsel representing the Registrar General of this Court submits on instructions that such pendency has tapered down. However, as of now reports are awaited for 32 cases from judicial officers and a couple of matters are pending before this High Court, being the confirming Court. Leaving aside one matter which is stated to be now pending before the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India, the Registrar General of this High Court is directed to take all measures for effective immediate communication through all available modes to the judicial officers concerned for expeditious generation of the reports as are required in conformity with law, in all pending cases. Let action taken in this regard be also reported in the form an affidavit on behalf of the Registrar General of this High Court when this case is called on for hearing on the next date.
Let the matter be posted on January 10, 2020.
Let a photostat plain copy of this order duly countersigned by the Assistant Registrar (Court) be supplied to the parties on usual undertakings.
[Thottathil B. Radhakrishnan, C.J] [Arijit Banerjee, J.]