4. Arrears on criminal side in Allahabad High Court

Here is an extract from observations made by a Division Bench of Allahabad High Court while passing an interim order (Bail) in Criminal Appeal No. 2651 of 2009:

“We need to also keep in mind that presently the Central and District jails in U.P. are crowded to the extent of double or more of their sanctioned capacity. As per information received from the I.G. (Prisons), U.P., as on 30.6.09 the combined capacity of the 6 Central Jails for lifers and other convicted prisoners undergoing imprisonment in excess of 7 years was 6893 prisoners, but they are presently housing 13534 convicts. The Naini Central Jail which also doubles as a district jail for Allahabad and Kaushambi, has a capacity for 2060 prisoners, but as a matter fact it is presently housing 4265 prisoners. The result is that Central Jails are now refusing to admit lifers and other long sentence prisoners, and is diverting them to the 53 district jails which are meant for under trials and convicts who are awarded less than 7 years sentence. But the district jails are also already overcrowded. The total capacity of central and district jails is 42540, but they are presently housing 82230 prisoners, which is almost double the planned capacity.
We cannot see the cases of these convicts in jail being decided at any early date in the forseeable future as the Allahabad High Court is functioning with only half its strength at 84, whereas it has a sanctioned strength of 160 Judges, even though as on 4.8.09 there were 7,02,519 cases of all nature, pending in the Allahabad High Court.
The position of pendency of criminal appeals is also very disturbing. According to the High Court's Master Computer 84432 criminal appeals (including 23780 division bench and 60652 single judge appeals) and 11666 government appeals (9749 division bench and 1917 single judge) were pending on 4.8.09. There are a few criminal appeals which are pending since 1978, and from 1982 onwards the single judge and division bench appeals that are pending have been running into four figures. The final disposal of appeals per year is however very low. Division benches are also tied up in fresh and final hearing matters in criminal writs, whose pendency is 18584 and on an average about 133 division bench criminal writs are filed daily, mainly seeking stays of arrests because of the inapplicability of section 438 Cr.P.C and absence of provision for anticipatory bail in the state of U.P. Likelihood of denial of bails by subordinate courts even in petty matrimonial disputes, or where disputes are essentially civil in nature and other minor matters where on occasion respectable persons has been falsely implicated, causes a rush before benches hearing applications under section 482 Cr.P.C. or Criminal Revisions after filing of charge sheets. Consequently 63,323 applications under section 482 CrP.C and 35473 Criminal revisions were also pending as on 4.8.09. On an average about 200 applications under section 482 Cr.P.C. and about 25 Criminal Revisions are filed in the High Court daily.
Although we are conscious of the fact that for maintaining the confidence of the public in the judicial system and for preventing citizens from engaging in private vendetta or taking recourse to extra legal means and seeking the aid of the Mafia it is important that in cases where grave accusations of murder or under section 396 IPC etc. are made, bails should not be granted lightly. But at the same time we cannot lose sight of the fact that in view of the chronic overcrowding in the jails law and order problems, conflicts and suicides and problems of maladministration of jails are being increasingly reported. The Apex Court in Rama Murthy v. State of Karnataka, AIR 1997 SC 1739 has spoken on how jail overcrowding adversely affects health and hygiene conditions of prisoners, and how it results in mixing of hardened criminals involved in serious offences with prisoners involved in minor offences, casting a negative influence on the latter.”