Create system to hear appeals of convicts, undertrials: SC to Allahabad HC

The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the Allahabad high court to create a mechanism in four weeks to deal with bail pleas of undertrials and appeals of convicts pending with it for several years. The order came amid a huge backlog in petitions, which threatens to overwhelm the criminal justice delivery system. A bench led by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul also asked the HC and Uttar Pradesh government to sit together to address the issue.

The SC order came after rejecting several suggestions made by the UP government to streamline the process of hearing appeals of undertrials and convicts. Calling the UP government suggestions as too cumbersome, SC asked the HC to come up with a policy within 4 weeks to ensure that no one undergoes unnecessarily long jail terms due to pendency. Several convicts have sought stays on their sentences citing excessive delays in hearing their appeals.

"We are dealing with people who are languishing in jails and their criminal appeals are not listed. How much time does it take for a bail matter to come up," the bench asked the HC. SC said that the HC could create separate benches to deal quickly with appeals of those who have spent several years in jail.


The Allahabad HC at the moment is grappling with bail appeals even dating back to 2007. One reason for the backlog in case has been the shortage of judges. The Allahabad HC functions at almost half strength of 160 judges at the moment. The SC collegium had recommended 13 judges to the Allahabad HC. It had also recommended 68 names in one go for elevation as judges to various high courts to the Centre last month. The Centre is yet to clear the recommendations.

Acknowledging the seriousness of the backlog of bail applications, the SC bench said that normally those who have undergone eight years in jail or completed half their sentences must be granted bail pending a hearing of their appeal.