The Supreme Court of India has said the presumption of innocence of an undertrial does not dissolve merely because a law enforcement agency says his alleged offence is “serious” or if he happens to be booked under a stringent law.
A Bench headed by Justice J.K. Maheshwari marked the court’s disapproval of agencies resorting to ways to prolong the incarceration of undertrials without bail for the “purpose of giving him a taste of imprisonment as a lesson”.
A year of changing views in the Supreme Court
The judicial order reminded enforcement authorities that every accused who applied for bail before the top court was presumed innocent. This was a fundamental postulate of the law that does not disappear into thin air on the ground that the allegations were serious or the law was grave.
‘Disproportionate custody’
