On Tuesday, the High Court of Delhi said that it intends to bring the blanket order of extending the interim bail & emergency parole of prisoners in Delhi to an end after the Govt of Delhi informed the Court that only 3 inmates are infected by COVID-19 & are undergoing treatment in hospitals.

Earlier in March, prisoners in Delhi were released on interim bail & emergency parole as one of the first measures to decongest jails & prevent the spread of the contagion.

On Tuesday, a 3-member High Court bench, comprising Chief Justice (CJ) DN Patel, Justice Siddharth Mridul & Justice Talwant Singh, said that the blanket order was passed because of the Coronavirus outbreak.

On Tuesday, the Delhi Govt, through Lawyer Rahul Mehra, a standing counsel for criminal cases, told the High Court that a total of 5,581 inmates were released on interim bail & emergency parole.

Though the total capacity of jails in Delhi is 10,000, around 16,000 inmates have lodged because of an acute space crunch.

The Delhi Govt told the Court that 216 jail employees had tested Covid-19 positive, of which 206 had recovered from their viral infection.

Sandeep Goel, Director-General of Delhi’s Tihar Prison, informed the High Court some of the employees live in jail quarters & others don’t commute to work from outside.

Sandeep Goel said that “At present, only three inmates are undergoing treatment at hospitals after they had tested Covid-19 positive. The contagion was contained in jails because adequate measures were undertaken by the authorities concerned".

Amit Prasad, Special Public Prosecutor (SPP), told the High Court that 25 prisoners arrested in different cases of north-east Delhi riots, which had erupted in the end of February, were out on interim bail & emergency parole because of the blanket order.

CJ Patel said that the High Court intended to end the blanket order & was not concerned with the jails’ lodging capacity. He cited that the order was passed because of the Coronavirus outbreak.

CJ Patel said that “While passing the order, it was not taken into consideration the capacity of the jails. We had only passed the order due to the outbreak of Covid-19".

Mehra opposed the move & said that it would be against the spirit of the orders passed by the Apex Court for decongestion of jails & correctional homes.

He pointed out that Delhi was still in the grip of Covid-19 pandemic & even a panel of the Delhi Govt, constituted following the Supreme Court orders to decongest the jails, had also passed guidelines to release the prisoners on interim bails or emergency paroles.

However, the High Court bench maintained that “Covid-19 order should end now & it should be back to the situation as it was earlier”.

They added that Prisoners would be allowed whatever remedies are available to them under law.

Justice Singh suggested during the hearing that the order be modified for those accused of heinous crimes. He cited that several inmates had misused the order in their bid to extend interim bail & emergency parole on multiple occasions.

CJ Patel weighed in & pointed out that the High Court wasn't concerned about the nature of the crime concerned.

He said he would pass the order later on Tuesday afternoon following deliberations with his other 2 member Judges of the bench. 

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