The National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) told the Supreme Court that as per recent data about 5,000 undertrial prisoners are in jails despite being granted bail and 1,417 of them have been released.

In a report filed before the Supreme court, NALSA has said it is in the process of creating a "master data" of all such undertrial prisoners, who are unable to furnish surety or bail bonds due to poverty, including the reasons for non-release from jail.

The Supreme court in its November 29 order flagged the issue of Under Trail Prisoners who continue to be in custody despite being granted bail on account of their inability to fulfil the conditions of bail.

The bench of Justices SK Kaul and AS Oka had asked the states to issue directions to jail authorities to provide details of such UTPs to NALSA, which will process it for making necessary suggestions on how to deal with this issue and provide legal assistance wherever necessary.

The report said that pursuant to the November 29 order, NALSA wrote to the state legal services authorities (SLSAs) to obtain details of such UTPs within 15 days and they were also directed to provide necessary legal assistance for their release.

The NALSA report filed before the Apex Court said "Based on the information received from almost all the state legal services authorities, it transpires that there were about 5,000 under trial prisoners who were in jail, despite grant of bail. Out of which, 2,357 persons were provided legal assistance. As many as 1,417 persons have since been released".