The Supreme Court directs states and UTs to free prisoners who have completed their jail term if not wanted in other cases.
Orders stemmed from the release of Sukhdev Yadav, who finished his 20-year sentence in March 2025 in the Nitish Katara murder case.
Registry to circulate order to Home Secretaries, NALSA and state legal services for implementation.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed all states and union territories to release prisoners who have completed their sentence and are not wanted in any other case, expressing concern over convicts continuing to languish in jail despite finishing their terms.
According to PTI, a bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and K V Viswanathan issued the directive while ordering the release of Sukhdev Yadav alias Pehalwan, a convict in the 2002 Nitish Katara murder case, who had completed his 20-year sentence without remission in March this year.
“We hold that in all cases where an accused/convict has completed his period of jail term, he shall be entitled to be released forthwith and not continued in imprisonment if not wanted in any other case,” the bench said, invoking Article 21 of the Constitution, which guarantees personal liberty except in accordance with the law.
The court ordered that a copy of its order be circulated to the Home Secretaries of all states and UTs to identify such cases, and to the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) for onward communication to state and district legal services bodies for implementation.
It observed that Yadav should have been freed on March 10, 2025, a day after completing his term. The apex court had earlier granted him three months of furlough, noting his 20 years of uninterrupted incarceration.
Yadav’s plea before the Supreme Court challenged a November 2024 Delhi High Court order that had denied him a three-week furlough.
In the Nitish Katara case, the Supreme Court in October 2016 sentenced Vikas Yadav and Vishal Yadav to 25 years in jail without remission, and Sukhdev Yadav to 20 years. They were found guilty of kidnapping and killing Katara on the night of February 16-17, 2002, allegedly because of his relationship with Bharti Yadav, sister of Vikas and daughter of Uttar Pradesh politician D P Yadav, which the family opposed due to caste differences, as reported by PTI.
