BNSS 479: Supreme Court confirms bail for undertrial prisoners!

Supreme Court: An undertrial prisoner is an accused who is kept in judicial custody until the court hearing of the case is completed and the result is out. The Supreme Court has approved the provision of bail under the new law made by the government for such prisoners under section (BNSS497) of the Indian Justice Code.

What is BNSS 479: The Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been replaced by the Indian Judicial Code (BNS). The new laws claim that justice will be delivered in less time than before. The burden of pending cases will be reduced. Undertrial prisoners will get relief (fast-track release of undertrials). The way for release of prisoners jailed under less serious crimes will be cleared. In this connection, the Supreme Court has given relief to old undertrial prisoners lodged in jails for a long time and cleared the way for their bail. SC has also ordered the implementation of Section 479 of BNSS on undertrial prisoners. After the central government clarified the situation, the bench of Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Sandeep Mehta gave the green signal to their bail in their decision.

Big relief to undertrial prisoners  

The issue of immediate release of undertrial prisoners who commit crime for the first time under the new law has become a headline across the country. Most of the jails in India have more prisoners than their capacity. Among them, the number of undertrial prisoners is also increasing continuously. These are the people who were arrested in some criminal case but their case is still going on in the court, that is, the verdict has not come. There are many undertrial prisoners who are in jail for a long time without being proven guilty due to not getting justice at the right time. Now all of them are going to get relief.

These terms still apply

Under section 479, there is a provision for bail to first-time accused who have served one-third of their sentence. After the situation becomes clear on this, now the accused caught in the first crime and who have served one-third of their sentence will get bail. This section says that if a first-time offender undertrial prisoner serves one-third of the maximum sentence given for the crime charged under that law, then the court will release him on bond. If an undertrial prisoner accused of any crime other than life imprisonment and death penalty serves half of the total sentence, then the court will release him on bail.