Chief Justice of the AP High Court, Justice Arup Kumar Goswami has taken into consideration the recent resolutions of the High-Level Committee on the review of the state jails, and the release of prisoners in the wake of the corona.A bench of Justices Chagari Praveen Kumar and Kanneganti Lalitha was constituted to order the release of the prisoners as per the resolutions.
The bench directed the state DGP to direct all station and house officers to abide by the guidelines given by the Supreme Court in the Arnesh Kumar case while arresting the accused in punishable cases for seven years or less.
The High court said that an interim bail should be given to prisoners who were released on interim bail last year and returned to jail, to in-trial, prisoners, to prisoners who have been sentenced for seven years or less.
Also, the High court ordered to take assurance from prisoners to stay in home quarantine for 14 days after release on ‘interim bail’.
Later, it postponed the next hearing for six weeks.
While the total capacity of 79 jails in the state is 8,732, the Department of Prisons has submitted a report to the High Court that there are currently 6,905 inmates in the jails.
