Indian Prisons Serves as a Warehouse for the Innocent (Paper)
- Ganav S. Reddy, Christ University, Bangalore
- January 21, 2021
Content :
This paper talks about the various reasons as to why the prisons in India are so overcrowded. People who are imprisoned as “Under-trial” prisoners languish in prisons for a long time. AT first there is an introduction to the term prison accompanied with a brief explanation of the structure of a normal prison. Then there is then a very brief summary of the prisons in India which includes the description of the types of prisons and the different stages of administration that helps in the successful working of the prisons in India. Next the paper covers the description of the Criminal Judicial System in India which speaks about the current state the various reforms suggested and difficulties it is facing in the present time such as; it being a replica of the judicial system that was prevalent during the British Rule in India and the lack of changes this century old system has gone through even though multiple reforms had been suggested by various people. The apathy to perform such reforms, the scarcity of judges and the corruption prevalent in these courts has all contributed to the delay in fair justice. It can be seen that around 67.3% of the entire population of the prisoners in India consist of “under-trial” prisoners. In majority of the cases there is delay in judgments due to the apathy of the police to conduct investigations and in some cases the inability of the defendants to appoint a lawyer or their lack of knowledge of the law contributes for the over-crowding of the prisons in India. In some cases of Bhim Singh and Rudul Shah it can evidently be noted that there also innocent people who are imprisoned in these jails. The paper also discusses on a more pressing issue, the state of these under-trial prisoners during the COVID pandemic and talks about the various judgments passed by courts to deal with this issue.
