It’s a long road out of jail for many, despite bail

The delay in release of undertrials is an attack on their constitutional liberties, say activists

19-year-old Faizan, arrested on May 31 in a case of robbery, was granted bail by a Delhi court on September 24, but was eventually released on October 16 after tackling a series of legal hurdles.

Similarly, Javed*, an accused in an arson case of Delhi riots, was granted bail on June 10 last year, but it took a 20-day ordeal for him to be released from the Mandoli jail, where he was languishing since March last year.

Almost a week has passed after Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan was released from the Arthur Road Jail a day after being granted bail by the Bombay High Court due to delay in paperwork following which they missed the deadline to provide the jail with physical copies of the release orders. This shines a light on a number of undertrials who have to spend several weeks to more than a month after being granted bail as they either cannot pay the surety amount or are stuck in unnecessary delays like address verification or simply due to minor errors in documentation.