Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday directed that trials in all the cases where accused is languishing in jail for three years or more should
be expedited.
The court was hearing a PIL about the status of undertrials in the state.
The court was hearing a PIL about the status of undertrials in the state.
Government representative today told the court that there are a total of 554 undertrials in the state, who are in jail for three years or more.
Sixty-three of them are in jail for about five years, thirteen for seven years, and three are languishing in jail without trial for more than ten years.
After hearing this, division bench of Justices Bilal Nazki and A R Joshi directed the registrar general of high court to issue a circular to magistrates and sessions judges to expedite trials in these cases.
Court also asked the director general of police to ensure that undertrials are produced before courts on dates of trial.
In another case, government had conceded that many times undertrials are not taken to courts on given dates, because jail authorities did not have policemen for escorting them.
Asking the government to seek data of undertrials who are in jail for less than three years, court adjourned the hearing for four weeks.
Bureau Report
