<p>The recent rebuke by the Karnataka High Court over the failure of jail authorities to produce an undertrial – remanded to judicial custody – before the court for four years should shame the criminal justice system into urgent introspection. That such neglect could persist unnoticed speaks not of an aberration, but of a systemic collapse. Worse, while the undertrial, Imran alias Kulla, was lodged in prison, the police informed the court that he was “not traceable” in another case. Justice M Nagaprasanna’s blunt direction – “put your prison in order” – was accompanied by concrete action: summoning senior police and prison officers, ordering a departmental inquiry, and mandating a state-wide audit of undertrials who are not produced before courts. The reminder was unambiguous: undertrials are human beings, not files to be forgotten. This is not an isolated instance. The human cost is illustrated by multiple cases involving inmates who remain in prison after being granted bail because they are not able to furnish surety. Alongside the moral failure lies a fiscal one: forgotten undertrials cost the exchequer dear while overcrowding jails.</p>.<p>This problem is not limited to Karnataka. Undertrials constitute roughly 75 per cent of India’s prison population. Many languish behind bars because of poverty, illiteracy, and procedural indifference. The Supreme Court has repeatedly sought to correct this imbalance. Its recent insistence on retrospectively applying the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) ensures that first-time undertrials who have served one-third of their maximum sentence are released on personal bond. Under the BNSS, jail superintendents are now legally obliged to identify eligible undertrials and move courts for their release. But in reality, the judicial intent that “bail is the rule and jail the exception” often dies in administrative apathy. The contrast becomes starker when viewed against the repeated parole granted to high-profile prisoners such as Gurmeet Ram Rahim, head of Dera Sacha Sauda, convicted of rape and murder, who has spent 400 days outside prison. While influential convicts walk out on furlough with clockwork regularity, lakhs of indigent undertrials remain invisible within prison walls, even without being convicted of any crime.</p>.What the robot reveals about India’s education.<p>Karnataka and other states must conduct a time-bound audit of all prisons, identify undertrials accused of petty offences, and release those who meet Supreme Court thresholds, particularly those who are jailed solely due to their inability to furnish surety. For the undertrials trapped in limbo, the system’s failure is inexcusable; they are losing years of their life – years that cannot be regained.</p>
<p>The recent rebuke by the Karnataka High Court over the failure of jail authorities to produce an undertrial – remanded to judicial custody – before the court for four years should shame the criminal justice system into urgent introspection. That such neglect could persist unnoticed speaks not of an aberration, but of a systemic collapse. Worse, while the undertrial, Imran alias Kulla, was lodged in prison, the police informed the court that he was “not traceable” in another case. Justice M Nagaprasanna’s blunt direction – “put your prison in order” – was accompanied by concrete action: summoning senior police and prison officers, ordering a departmental inquiry, and mandating a state-wide audit of undertrials who are not produced before courts. The reminder was unambiguous: undertrials are human beings, not files to be forgotten. This is not an isolated instance. The human cost is illustrated by multiple cases involving inmates who remain in prison after being granted bail because they are not able to furnish surety. Alongside the moral failure lies a fiscal one: forgotten undertrials cost the exchequer dear while overcrowding jails.</p>.<p>This problem is not limited to Karnataka. Undertrials constitute roughly 75 per cent of India’s prison population. Many languish behind bars because of poverty, illiteracy, and procedural indifference. The Supreme Court has repeatedly sought to correct this imbalance. Its recent insistence on retrospectively applying the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) ensures that first-time undertrials who have served one-third of their maximum sentence are released on personal bond. Under the BNSS, jail superintendents are now legally obliged to identify eligible undertrials and move courts for their release. But in reality, the judicial intent that “bail is the rule and jail the exception” often dies in administrative apathy. The contrast becomes starker when viewed against the repeated parole granted to high-profile prisoners such as Gurmeet Ram Rahim, head of Dera Sacha Sauda, convicted of rape and murder, who has spent 400 days outside prison. While influential convicts walk out on furlough with clockwork regularity, lakhs of indigent undertrials remain invisible within prison walls, even without being convicted of any crime.</p>.What the robot reveals about India’s education.<p>Karnataka and other states must conduct a time-bound audit of all prisons, identify undertrials accused of petty offences, and release those who meet Supreme Court thresholds, particularly those who are jailed solely due to their inability to furnish surety. For the undertrials trapped in limbo, the system’s failure is inexcusable; they are losing years of their life – years that cannot be regained.</p>
