Lower judiciary should give bail on personal bond: govt to HC

In order to avoid overcrowding of prisons, the lower judiciary needs to be sensitised to allow inmates, already granted bail in minor offences, to be enlarged on personal bond if they cannot arrange a surety, Delhi government told the High Court today.
The submission was made by Delhi government's senior standing counsel Rahul Mehra before a bench of justices G S Sistani and Vinod Goel during the hearing of a girl's plea that her husband was unable to come out on bail, despite getting the relief, as he is unable to arrange a surety.
"Judiciary at lower levels need to be sensitised. For minor offences, we are keeping people in jail, which leads to overcrowding of prisons. I fail to understand what purpose it would serve.

"Depending on the severity of the offence and discretion of the trial court, they could be released on personal bonds as most of them remain in jail because they cannot afford bail," Mehra said.
The bench asked the trial court to consider the application for grant of bail on personal bond and directed the police to carry out a verification of the man's address.
The plea was moved during the hearing of a habeus corpus petition moved by the girl's father in September 2016 to trace his missing daughter.
When the girl was traced in October last year, she had said she left with her lover out of her own free will and married him. She was also pregnant.

The girl's father, however, had refused to accept his son-in-law, who was arrested on the complaint lodged by him.