View source for Bail and the law: India

=Inability to pay for bond=
==SC: Don’t keep poor in jail for failure to pay for bail==
[http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=SC-Failure-to-pay-for-bail-no-reason-06022016012032 ''The Times of India''], Feb 06 2016

AmitAnand Choudhary

'''SC: Failure to pay for bail no reason to keep poor in jail'''


A prisoner is entitled to be treated with dignity and sympathy , said the Supreme Court while directing the Centre and state governments on Friday to provide all basic facilities to jail inmates commensurate with human dignity .
To reduce the number of prisoners in overcrowded jails, Justices Madan B Lokur and R K Agrawal directed the prison authorities to take steps to release those who are languishing in jail for not being able to pay the bail bond.“A prisoner is required to be treated as a human being entitled to all the basic human rights, human dignity and human sympathy ,“ it said.

It directed the Undertrial Review Committee in districts to meet every quarter and take steps for the release of undertrials and convicts who have undergone their sentence or are entitled to release because of remission granted to them. It said undertrials who have undergone detention for half of the maximum period of imprisonment shall be released on his personal bond with or without sureties as specified under Section 436A of CrPC. “The Committee should see that undertrial prisoners are released at the earliest and those who cannot furnish bail bond due to their poverty are not subjected to incarceration only for that reason,“ it said.

Expressing concern over poor quality of legal aid provided to indigent litigants, the bench directed State Legal Services Authority to hire adequate number of competent lawyers to provide free legal advice to the poor accused. “The DGPIG in-charge of prisons should ensure that there is proper and effective utilisation of funds so that the living conditions of the prisoners is commensurate with human dignity,“ it said.

The court pointed out that as on December 31, 2013 the number of under-trial prisoners was 67.6% of the entire prison population, which is “unacceptably high“.

==31% unable to furnish bonds==
[http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=31-dont-get-bail-due-to-their-inability-26042016012055 ''The Times of India''], Apr 26 2016

'''31% don't get bail due to their inability to furnish bonds: Study'''


Property disputes and family conflicts clog our judicial system and in a majority of cases, police detain the accused unnecessarily . These are the findings of Daksh, an NGO which analyses the performance of the judiciary . Around 66% of all cases studied are property-related litigations, and 10%, the second largest chunk, are family matters.

The other issues leading to litigation were recovery of money (8%), and permanent injunction, whereby a court orders a person or entity to take certain action or refrain from certain activities (3.4%).

The survey , involving more than 9,000 civil and crimi nal matters over 300 subordinate courts across the country , boosts the government's call for a “no detention policy“ in the near future where arrest is an exception and not the rule if an accused is available for interrogation and has honoured court summons.

In 64% of the cases, the accused was found to have been granted bail within a month of their arrest, probably since the courts did not find enough merit in keeping them behind bars. Another 14% were granted bail between one and six months. The apex court had in the past, while supporting `bail is the rule and jail is exception' theory , observed that police should refrain from arresting an accused if he or she is ready to cooperate in investigation and there is no fear that the accused would run away from clutches of the law.

During the study , spread over three months, Daksh interviewed 9,329 litigants in both civil and criminal matters from 305 lower courts in 170 districts in 24 states. The wide range of data portrays the need to correct the entire justice delivery system corroded over a period of time, which at present seems to be favouring the rich and the influential. The survey by the Bengaluru NGO was released on Saturday in the capital in presence of Justice Madan B Lokur, senior Supreme Court judge overseeing the implementation of judicial reforms in the country .

The survey also substantiates what the National Law University (NLU) -which partnered Daksh in the current survey -had found in an independent study last year.The NLU's interviews with 373 death row convicts had found that 75% of those given death penalty belonged to economically weaker sections, backward classes and religious minorities.

Many of them were sentenced to death probably be cause they couldn't defend their case because of their failure to find a competent lawyer to contest their conviction.

The current Daksh study too, points to a similar picture: around 31% of those who couldn't avail of bail was due to their inability to furnish a bail bond. In 2.8% of cases, the accused couldn't find a guarantor who could stand as surety . Surprisingly , there is no rule that prohibits the courts from releasing an undertrial where it feels detention is avoidable. The amended Section 436A of the Code of Criminal Procedure provides for release of undertrials under personal bond where he is not able to furnish the bond money or surety .



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