INTRODUCTION
The Indian Constitution ensures that the fundamental human rights of every individual and every person are protected. In addition to this, it ensures that the state will protect these fundamental liberties and protect its residents from any form of arbitrary infringement on their privacy, security, or liberty. There have been numerous instances over the course of the years in which the Supreme Court has stressed the role of the judiciary as a “guardian of their sentences.” As a means of providing support for this, the court has established a variety of rules and directives that the states are required to respect.
In the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India, the subject of law pertaining to prisons has been positioned under Entry 4 of List-II, which is referred to as the State list. Because of this, the organization, rules, and models of jails in various states are distinct from one another. The Prisons Act of 1894, which is a major piece of legislation, serves as the basis for the manuals that are generated by each of the states. Because there is a dearth of political will in independent India to pass legislation regarding prisons, it is the pronouncements of the judiciary that have brought the constitutional rights of individuals who are incarcerated into the attention of the public. It is not true that incarceration is synonymous with the loss of fundamental rights.[1]
A person who has been committed to judicial custody pending investigation or trial by competent authority is referred to as an undertrial, according to the definition provided by the Model Prison Manual. When it comes to dealing with individuals who have committed criminal offenses, the courts frequently have the option of imposing imprisonment as one of the common forms of punishment. The purpose of prisons is to confine criminals in order to limit their personal freedom. Prisons are buildings that are used for this purpose. The length of time spent in confinement is linked to the seriousness of the offense that was committed. The prisons house a wide variety of inmates, including those who have been convicted of a crime, those who are awaiting trial, males, women, foreign nationals, internal detainees, and civil prisoners. A significant number of them are addicted to drugs, repeat offenders, professional criminals, sexual perverts, and other such individuals. According to Srivastava and Srivastava (2023), there is not a proper classification and segregation of correctional facility inmates.
Undertrials are those incarcerated without a conviction for the charges against them, currently undergoing legal proceedings in a competent court, and are legally deemed innocent. They are intended to be maintained under ‘judicial custody,’ however they are typically confined in prisons. The objective of detaining undertrials is to provide an equitable hearing, preventing them from influencing witnesses. The delay in case trials constitutes the fundamental human rights concern and the primary reason for the prevalence of undertrial detainees. A preliminary investigation by the National Human Rights Commission has shown the alarming issue of the overwhelming number of undertrial prisoners in Indian jails and the excessive delays in trial proceedings. These individuals ultimately remain incarcerated for a far longer duration than if they had been convicted of the identical charges. The majority of undertrial detainees are impoverished and uninformed about their entitlements, while the prevailing administrative structure is marred by corruption, hindering this demographic from accessing their constitutional rights (Sharma, 2023).
[1] Charles Sobraj vs Superintendent Central Jail, Tihar, New Delhi, AIR 1978 SC 1514.