Make surrender of UID card a must for convict’s bail: Bombay HC

The Bombay High Court has mooted the idea of compulsorily accepting as surety the unique identification (UID) card of a convict or an accused when granting bail.

A division bench of Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice PD Kode has suggested this to the government so that it is easier to trace absconders.

When the HC took suo moto cognisance of the absconding accused, 22,000 were found non-traceable in the last five years. Mumbai leads the pack — accounting for 13,000 of the 19,899 who have gone AWOL. The numbers reduced by a mere 2,000 after recurring names were struck out.

Explaining why Mumbai stuck out like a sore thumb, additional public prosecutor Ajey Gadkari told the court that the city’s problem is unique. “A majority of persons living in slums or on the street are arrested for petty offenses. People move away, and slums are taken up for rehabilitation and demolished. This makes it difficult to trace people,” he argued.

On UIDs, Gadkari said the government was still in the process of issuing the cards, expected to be completed by next March.

“However, the process is on for getting UIDs for jail inmates.”
In Mumbai, the deputy commissioner of police of every zone heads a team to trace the absconders. During a special drive in April, 131 of them were nabbed.