The Supreme Court on Thursday directed all states and Union territories to formulate and notify, within three months, a uniform policy for the early release of prisoners who are terminally ill or of advanced age, saying such inmates deserve a humane and time-bound mechanism to secure remission or release on compassionate grounds.
A bench of justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta ordered that every state policy must contain a clear and uniform definition of “terminal illness”, prescribe objective eligibility criteria, mandate certification by medical boards and lay down definite timelines and procedures for considering requests for remission or compassionate release.
Pronouncing the judgment, the bench also directed that the policies be framed and implemented in coordination with the respective State Legal Services Authorities (SLSAs).
“All states and UTs within three months shall formulate and notify policy for early release of advanced age and terminally ill prisoners. Such policies shall be coordinated with SLSAs. Such policy shall provide a clear and uniform definition for terminal illness and certain criteria,” directed the court.
The bench further ordered that the policy will mandate medical boards for certification of terminal illness and lay down timelines and procedure for early and timely release on remission or on compassionate grounds.
To facilitate implementation, the court directed the Union government to provide all necessary technical support and digital infrastructure, including activation of an e-portal to enable tracking of applications seeking such relief.
The court also directed the Centre, states and Union territories to file compliance affidavits within six months indicating the number of prisoners identified under the policy, those released and those whose cases remain under consideration. The matter has been posted for January 19, 2027 for monitoring compliance.
The directions came on a petition filed by the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA), which, following inspections of prisons across the country, flagged the absence of a uniform framework for dealing with aged and terminally ill prisoners.
When the court had taken up the matter in May last year, NALSA informed it that a nationwide survey had identified 456 prisoners, including undertrials, who were either terminally ill or above the age of 70. Among convicts alone, the survey found 13 terminally ill prisoners and 84 elderly convicts.
The petition contended that permitting deserving prisoners to spend their final days with their families served both humanitarian and constitutional objectives, while also helping address overcrowding in prisons. It pointed out that India’s prisons had an occupancy rate of 131% as of December 31, 2022, and that terminally ill and elderly inmates often require specialised medical care and constant attention that prison authorities are ill-equipped to provide.
NALSA had launched a nationwide campaign between December 2024 and March 2025, directing its state and district legal services authorities to inspect prisons and identify inmates falling in these categories. It had also highlighted individual cases where legal services authorities approached constitutional courts to secure relief for aged and terminally ill prisoners, including a 93-year-old woman convict in Karnataka and a terminally ill undertrial before the Calcutta High Court.
The petition urged the Supreme Court to evolve a uniform mechanism enabling trial courts and competent authorities to consider such prisoners for bail, remission or compassionate release, subject to appropriate safeguards and conditions.
With Thursday’s judgment, the apex court has now required every state and Union territory to institutionalise such a framework within a fixed timeframe, while also putting in place a digital monitoring mechanism to ensure that applications are processed without undue delay.
