The Supreme Court on Friday expressed surprise why in the age of Internet, jail authorities continue to rely on ancient modes of communication to receive bail orders.
The top court also stressed that it will soon develop a secure electronic transmission mechanism for the jail authorities to access orders, for expeditious release of prisoners.
A bench of Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and justices L. Nageswara Rao and A.S. Bopanna made the observation during the hearing on a suo motu case in connection with the delay in releasing convicts by prison authorities even after being granted bail by courts.
“In this age of information and communication technology, we are still looking at the skies for the pigeons to communicate the orders,” CJI Ramana said.
He expressed surprise that the jail officials are waiting for the Supreme Court orders to be sent by post.
“We had ordered release in some matters, and they were not released since they (jail authorities) did not receive authentic copy of orders. This is too much,” he added.
“We are contemplating a system for secure orders of bail, so that such orders can be sent electronically to jail authorities,” the CJI added.
The bench added that it is directing Supreme Court Secretary General to frame the scheme and also consult amicus curia senior advocate Dushyant Dave and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta in the matter.
Justice Rao added that the idea of this order is to send the order copies of this court via a secured route.
“This will be taking care of security,” he said.
Attorney General K.K. Venugopal said the top court’s idea was “very progressive”.
The top court also asked state governments to provide details on how many prisons in their territory have Internet connection and also by when jails will be equipped with proper Internet facility for faster communication of bail orders.
The bench said it is directing the Secretary General to place a report within 2 weeks’ time, and “we’ll try to implement the scheme in a month”.