Put bail orders on the internet, Delhi high court tells trial judges

The Delhi high court today directed the principal district and sessions judge to instruct all trial judges in the district to put their bail orders on the internet to make them easily accessible to undertrials and convicts lodged in different jails.

A division bench of chief justice Dipak Misra and justice Manmohan directed the trial courts to communicate the bail orders to the competent authority of Tihar Jail by fax and also put them online.

The bench also directed the chief law officer of the jail to constitute a coordination committee to collect all information on bail orders passed by courts and list the undertrial prisoners who have availed of them and those who have not. This information has to be collected on a weekly basis.

The court asked the member-secretary of the Delhi Legal Services Authority (DLSA) to monitor the issue and file a report by the next date of hearing.

The court summoned the chief law officer of Tihar Jail and the DLSA member-secretary on a public-interest petition filed by DM Bhalla, an advocate.

Bhalla said several prisoners were languishing in jail after failing to furnish the bail bond and surety. He claimed that more than 100 such prisoners were lodged in jail and the authorities had failed to do anything for them.