Detaining prisoner without trial amounts to pre-trial punishment: Bombay HC

The Bombay High Court has emphasised that the principle of bail is the rule and refusal is an exception saying detaining a prisoner for a long period without trial amounts to pretrial punishment reported news agency PTIA bench of Justice Milind Jadhav on May 9 also took note of overcrowded jails in the state and said the courts need to strike a balanceThe bench made the observations while granting bail to one Vikas Patil arrested for allegedly killing his brother in 2018Justice Jadhav noted that trials are nowadays taking perpetuity to conclude and prisons were simultaneously overcrowded in some segmentsThe bench said it regularly deals with cases where undertrial prisoners have been in custody for a long period and is equally aware of the conditions of the prisonsJustice Jadhav referred to a December 2024 report from the superintendent of the Arthur Road Jail which stated that the facility was overcrowded beyond its sanctioned capacity by more than six timesIt noted that every barrack sanctioned to house only 50 inmates as of date has anywhere between 220 to 250 inmatesSuch an incongruity leads us to answer the proposition How can courts find a balance between the two polarities Justice Jadhav remarked reported PTIThe court said these are cases concerning the liberty of undertrial prisoners who have been incarcerated for long periods impacting their constitutional right to speedy justice and personal libertyThe principle rule is bail is the rule and refusal is the exception it saidJustice Jadhav referred to an article written by two undertrial prisoners Proof of Guilt which raised the question of the long incarceration of persons awaiting trialHe said while mere long incarceration cannot be an absolute proposition for bail it was an important issue that needed consideration along with the right to a speedy trialThe paradox in the question raised in the article as to how long is too long a period of incarceration until the right to a speedy trial is defeated is relevant prima facie and there cannot be one definite answer the court remarkedDetaining an undertrial prisoner for a long period only served to legitimise the award of surrogate punishment without trial which amounts to pretrial punishment the court said reported PTIThe bench also called for a change in the mindset and approach of the prosecution and referred to how prosecutors vehemently oppose bail pleas even in cases of long incarceration pending trial under the mistaken impression that the crime was serious and hence bail should not be grantedThe overarching postulate of criminal jurisprudence that an accused is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty cannot be brushed aside lightly however stringent the law may be Justice Jadhav said reported PTIThe court noted that in the present case the accused has been in jail for over six years and there is no distinct possibility of the trial to start or conclude in the near foreseeable futureWith inputs from PTIatOptionskeyd0ddb8ef8f1a62a8cdd22fac27fc5ea7formatiframeheight90width728params