A total of 5,844 undertrials lodged in the Capital’s jails are facing trial in cases in which the punishment is seven years or more.
This information has been provided to the Delhi High Court by Delhi Government’s counsel Meira Bhatia in a status report in response to a suo motu petition.
The Court had in November converted a letter from an advocate, highlighting delays in trial, into a public interest litigation and sought status reports from the State Government and the Delhi Legal Services Authority.
Cases under NDPS Act
The Court had directed the Government and the authority’s member-secretary to provide data about undertrials and convicts in jails who were involved in cases punishable with a jail term of up to seven years or more. It had in particular sought information about the inmates involved in cases under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and the Foreigners’ Act.
The report said that 490 of the undertrials were facing prosecution under the NDPS Act and 78 under the Foreigners’ Act. The statistics had been collected from all ten jails here, the report said.
There are 1,156 convicts lodged in these jails in connection with cases in which imprisonment is seven years or more and of these appeals in 92 cases are pending before the High Court, the report stated.
