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Synopsis

The Supreme Court has decided to issue directions to set in place an Institutional Monitoring Mechanism to ensure full and complete compliance of its past and future orders for bail of undertrial prisoners (UTPs) in the case of Satinder Kumar Antil Vs Central Bureau of Investigation.

A bench of Justices M M Sundresh and Aravind Kumar took into account, a submission made by senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, appearing as amicus curiae in the case, pointing out that it was extremely unfortunate that UTP’s despite getting bail, are not being released from the prison since no family member or friend is coming forward to stand as surety or furnish bonds on the UTP’s behalf.

"We are in full agreement with the submission, as it is indeed a palpable situation which continues to be faced by the UTPs. Further, directions are also required to be issued to set in place an Institutional Monitoring Mechanism to ensure full and compliance of not only the directions which have already been passed, but also those directions which may be passed by this Court in the future as well," the bench said.

The court thus directed that all the High Courts and States/UTs must ensure compliance of the SOP (standard operating procedure) for UTPs as laid down by this court by an order on February 13, 2024, in those cases where no family member or friend is coming forward to stand as surety or furnish bonds on the behalf of the UTPs.

It also directed the NALSA to suggest a policy for implementing the direction.

To ensure implementation of the mandate of the Satender Kumar Antil case, the court further directed:

Every Magistrate and/or Sessions Judge shall inform its jurisdictional Principal District Judge about any form of noncompliance of Para.100.2 or Para.100.3 of Satender Kumar Antil vs. CBI & Anr (2022) within 1 week of recording such non-compliance;

Every Principal District Judge shall maintain a record of details of such non-compliances received from the concerned Magistrates;

Every Principal District Judge upon receipt of details of noncompliance by the concerned Magistrate shall, on a monthly basis, forward the same to the Registrar General of the concerned High Court and to the Head of Police in the concerned District;

The Head of Police of the concerned District shall, upon receipt of details of non-compliance of Para.100.2, take action against the erring officer as soon as possible and inform the concerned Principal District Judge;

The Registrar General of each High Court shall, upon receipt of details of such non-compliance of Para.100.2 and/or Para.100.3, place the same before the Committee for “Ensuring the Implementation of the Decisions of the Apex Court” for further action and forward it to the higher Police Authority. In those High Courts where such a committee is not currently in place, the same shall be constituted by the respective High Court.

The bench also issued directions for due compliance by the States, UTs, CBI and High Courts which are yet to comply with the directions of this Court as issued earlier by orders.