Jail without conviction

Incountriessuchas the United Kingdomand Canada, undertrialprisoners constitute lessthan20 percent oftheprison population, thanks to robust bailsystems andefficienttrial procedures. Incontrast, India’s figureofnearly 70 percent underscores the urgency of reform. The United Nations has repeatedly emphasized that prolonged pre-trial detention violates basichumanrightsand undermines the principle of presumption ofinnocence. India, astheworld’s largest democracy, cannot afford to ignorethesewarnings

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Each year, as India celebrates Constitution Day on 26 November, we reaffirm our collective commitment to liberty, dignity, and justice. The day is meant to remind us of the living spirit of our Constitution, a document that enshrines the rights of citizens and the responsibilities of the State. Yet Rousseau's timeless observation ~ “Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains” ~ continues to resonate with painful relevance.

While the Constitution guarantees freedom, equality, and protection of rights, the lived reality for thousands of citizens reveals a paradox: liberty celebrated in principle, but denied in practice. Nowhere is this contradiction more glaring than in the plight of undertrial prisoners.

India’s prisons today house over 4.3 lakh prisoners, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB 2023). Of these, nearly 70 per cent are undertrials ~ individuals not yet convicted of any crime, but confined while awaiting trial. This means that more than three out of every four prisoners are not proven guilty but are trapped in the limbo of delayed justice.

In states such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh, the proportion of undertrials exceeds 75 per cent of total inmates, reflecting systemic delays and inefficiencies. Many spend years behind bars without their cases being heard, some even longer than the maximum sentence prescribed for the alleged offence. The marginalized ~ daily wage earners, migrants, Dalits, and minorities ~ form the bulk of this population, their voices silenced by poverty and lack of access to legal aid.