'God Knows How Many Prisoners Are Languishing In Your Jails Over Technicality': Supreme Court Slams UP Govt, Orders Judicial Enquiry

"God knows how many are languishing in your jails over technicalities", the Supreme Court said today while heavily rebuking State of Uttar Pradesh for not releasing an accused over lack of particulars in the bail order.

The Court further directed a judicial enquiry by a sitting District Judge, which shall focus on why there was delay in the petitioner-accused's release and whether there was something "sinister" going on. Notably, an interim compensation of Rs.5 lakhs was also ordered to be paid by the state to the petitioner.

A bench of Justices KV Viswanathan and N Kotiswar Singh heard the matter. Yesterday, it took serious exception to the petitioner's non-release from custody and ordered the concerned Superintendent to appear personally. UP DG(Prisons) was also asked to appear online.

Today, both officers were present during the hearing. Senior Advocate and UP AAG Garima Prashad informed that there was no fault on the part of the petitioner and pursuant to yesterday's order, he had been released. Explaining the non-release, Prashad said the routine practice is to make applications before lower courts for modification/correction of the charging/punishing sections mentioned in the bail orders (if they are incorrectly mentioned). In the petitioner's case, she argued, delay occurred as the lower court did not pass the order modifying the release order in due time.

In response, Justice Viswanathan drew the AAG's attention to the Ghaziabad Court's release order and posed if it contained all necessary particulars for the petitioner's release. When the AAG conceded that the release order contained all such particulars, the Court opined that non-release on account of only sub-section (1) of Section 5 of UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021 not being mentioned in the bail order was "preposterous". It was highlighted that both Sections 3 and 5 were mentioned in the bail order and only under Section 5(1) can one be punished for the offense under Section 3.

"The fact that the applicant was released yesterday with no further direction from us, it is clear that the release order was amply sufficient to identify the individual" the Court observed.

Noting further that about 90,000 people are lodged in jails across UP, the bench wondered how many persons might be languishing over technicalities as came forth in the present case. Anguished, it asked the UP DG(Prisons) to take appropriate steps in this regard, who assured that he would hold a meeting with the concerned Superintendents and sensitize them.

"Supreme Court passes an order clearly mentioning the offenses. District Judge of Ghaziabad takes the bond and orders release. [But] he is released on 24 June (after 28 days) for no fault of his! Does it make any difference that sub-section (1) was not mentioned? We don't know how many people are languishing for this reason! If you keep people behind bars for this reason, what message are we sending?", Justice Viswanathan remarked.

Case Title: AFTAB Versus THE STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH, MA 1086/2025 in Crl.A. No. 2295/2025 

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