The Centre has earmarked Rs 5 crore in the 2025-26 budget for providing financial assistance to the prisoners who languish in jail because they could not afford their bail money.
Under the ‘Model Prisons and Correctional Services Act’ 2023, State Legal Services Authorities have established Legal Service Clinics in jails to provide free legal assistance to persons in need.
The Legal Service Clinics are managed by empanelled Legal Services Advocates and trained Para-Legal Volunteers.
The budget documents, presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament on Saturday, show that Rs 5 crore funds have been reserved to help prisoners unable to afford the penalty or the bail amount.
The Centre had kept Rs 20 crore in the previous budget but only Rs 1 crore could be put to use as states and union territories did not come with cases for clearance under the scheme, an official said.
The Home Ministry had last year said that each state should open a dedicated account for seamless flow of funds from the Central government to state headquarters to disburse it to the needy.
“The Ministry of Home Affairs has made a provision for an amount of Rs 20 crore annually which the states and UTs can make use of for providing financial assistance to poor prisoners to seek release from jail,” the last year’s official communication to the states and UTs had said.
For efficient implementation of the scheme and a seamless flow of funds from the Centre, the states were asked to take a number of steps in this regard.
According to the communication, all states and UTs were asked to constitute ‘Empowered Committees’ in all districts and an ‘Oversight Committee’ at the state or UT headquarters level with the indicative composition of such committees as provided in the guidelines.
Each state and UT had to appoint a nodal officer at the state or UT headquarters level who may engage with the Ministry of Home Affairs or the Central Nodal Agency (CNA) — National Crime Records Bureau — to seek any clarification or amplification about the procedure or guidelines.
Each state and UT had been asked to open a subsidiary account at the state or UT headquarter level under the CNA’s account (NCRB) and have it mapped on Public Financial Management System (PFMS) on most urgent basis as all funds from the Centre will flow through this account.
The states were told by the MHA that district level ‘Empowered Committee’, with the assistance of District Legal Services Authority and prison authorities, shall examine cases of eligible prisoners and shall have the power to sanction the amount required for paying fine or bail amount within the parameters of the guidelines prescribed on the subject.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
