- (1.)Ms. Rashmi Srivastava, learned Counsel appointed by the High Court Legal Services Authority appears on behalf of the appellant. She informs that on correspondence she has received a letter from the Superintendent, 'Nari Bandi Niketan' Lucknow that the appellant Manju wife of Rakesh is presently detained in the aforesaid prison pursuant to her conviction by the IVth Additional Sessions Judge, Ghaziabad to imprisonment for life under section 302/34/394/411 IPC in ST. No. 351 of 1995, Crime No. 22/95, P.S. Link Road, by the order dated 19.1.1998.
(2.)The appellant has filed the present criminal appeal in which she was granted bail on 12.5.2000 by this Court, on the ground that she had been in jail for over 5 years since 21.1.1995. We are shocked to learn that the appellant has not been released even after almost 13 years and 9 months of the said order and that she has undergone almost 19 years in prison. Whatever be the reason, this state of affairs only goes to show how disappointing and dismal our system of judicial administration must look to a person who falls at its receiving end. These lines in Hussainara Khatoon (1) v. State of Bihar, 1980 1 SCC 81 (page 83) are so apt to this situation: "...Many of these unfortunate men and women must not even be remembering when they entered the jail and for what offence. They have over the years ceased to be human beings: they are mere ticket numbers. It is high time that the public conscience is awakened and the Government as well as the judiciary begin to realise that in the dark cells of our prisons there are large numbers of men and women who are waiting patiently, impatiently perhaps, but in vain, for justice? a commodity which is tragically beyond their reach and grasp. Law has become for them an instrument of injustice and they are helpless and despairing victims of the callousness of the legal and judicial system."
(3.)What steps has the C.J.M., Ghaziabad taken for ensuring the release of this appellant pursuant to the High Court's order and was this prisoner ever informed that she was entitled to legal aid.