Overcrowding in prison; SC seeks Centre's response on plea

The Supreme Court today asked the Centre to respond to a plea seeking framing of a policy to grant bail to prisoners facing trial for petty offences as the the prison in the national capital is over-crowded.
"Issue notice. Returnable within five weeks," a bench of justices R M Lodha, J Chelameswar and Madan B Lokur said.
The bench was hearing a petition filed by lawyer Vijay Aggarwal saying undertrials constitute a whopping 64.7 per cent of the total prison population in India. There are over 2 lakh undertrial prisoners in India.
"The undertrials, who are charged with offences triable by a magistrate and punishable with a jail-term up to seven years, be released on bail during the trial as it would also lessen the burden on the state exchequer," Aggarwal said during the hearing.

The petition sought formulation of a policy under which the release of prisoners, serving seven years of imprisonment for the offences of cheating and forgery, be considered.
The persons, who are in jail during the trial for such offences, be also released on bail if they are in jail for more than a year, the plea said.
The plea for bail should be considered favourably of persons undergoing seven years of imprisonment and also of prisoners who have spent more than one year in prison for offences of cheating and forgery should be released, the lawyer said.