Prisoners Without Trial For Years; Most Are From Marginalised Communities: Report

Lack of timely judicial processes are often cited as one of the major shortcomings of the Indian judicial system, and only those cases that gain public limelight involving high-profile individuals or sometimes others get quick trials and justice. The majority of the cases remain pending, in some cases ruining several lives including the dependent families.

A recent revelation made by human rights activist Surendra Gadling and cultural activist Sagar Gorkhe, among others, sheds light on the dark truth that many people have been spending their precious time after getting incarcerated without being produced before the court for years, and most of them are from the marginalised and poverty stricken communities.

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The activists, with the help of others, arrested in the Elgar Parishad case have identified at least 300 people at Taloja central prison who have not been produced for trial for years. The data collected by the activists showed many prisoners had not been produced in court even once in two to three years, reports The Wire.

Drawing public attention to the gravity of the situation where many lives are being devastated due to the delay in trial, the data shows that the basic legal right to a timely trial is being violated.

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With the insights collected from the survey over months, both Gadling and Gorkhe have approached the Bombay High Court, seeking direction to ensure access to those in judicial custody. Many activists, including the CAA protesters like Umar Khalid, who has been in jail for more than four years without trial.

The revelation included having jail inmates staying over five years in Taloja central prison in Navi Mumbai without even taking them out from the jail for a single time or for their regular court dates.

There have been sit-in protests, even hunger strikes, undertaken by activists against the mismanagement in the prisons of Maharashtra, especially at Taloja prisons. The demand is none other than the accused’s right that they are produced before the court for hearings.

Gadling and Gorkhe, in their petition, have challenged the Maharashtra Home Department, Navi Mumbai Police, reserved police forces, Taloja Jail authorities, and the ADGP Prisons for the alleged ignorance of the prisoners’ constitutional rights.

As the presumption until proven guilty is not merely a legal right but is a fundamental human right of a person, the struggle for prisoners, who might have many innocent people, is to have the right to a fair trial and timely court appearances.

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The prion authorities have reportedly cited lack of adequate manpower as a reason for delay or failure in producing the accused before the court, which the petition called completely frivolous and constitutionally unsustainable justification. The justification also lacks the moral principles and values while ruining lives.

Notably, as mentioned earlier, most of those who are awaiting their trials in jails for years are from the marginalized communities in society. As per the report, Taloja prison is invariably overcrowded against the actual capacity of 2,124 prisoners, with close to 2,600 prisoners facing trial across the nine courts in Mumbai at present.

Most of these accused who are incarcerated without trial are from Dalits, Adivasis, and religious minorities. Behind many of them, there will be some family dependents, as most of them are migrants seeking employment, living in poverty, and serving as the breadwinners.

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The report noted that many incarcerations that consist of a few days to over 14 years have destroyed several families, inflicting severe harm on the families and dependents.

Despite the layers and human rights activists pointing out the crises, the situation remains the same. Even the family members were not allowed to meet their relatives in jail, the report claims.

Though this specific data centered around the Taloja central prisons, the situation is not different from other prisoners in the country.  Recently, the Law Ministry revealed that over 4.54 crore civil and criminal cases are pending in India’s lower courts alone, and many of the accused, including the innocent people held in these cases, might be awaiting justice.