A Study On Prolonged Incarceration Of Undertrials

“Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied ”[1]- a phrase that we come across very often in the Indian legal system. But it is usually looked at from a very narrow perspective, does justice here only mean for the victim? Why cannot an accused person be kept under the ambit of this phrase? Even though our criminal justice system is built on the premise of the accused being presumed innocent until proven guilty, it is far from reality. An accused in India is subjected to prolonged imprisonment in most cases even before the conclusion of the trial owing to the slow delivery of justice in India. Further, COVID’19 has exacerbated the scenario by putting the world on a standstill. The congestion of the prisons considerably increased their probability of getting infected with the deadly virus. An attempt has been made in the present study to analyse the prolonged incarceration of undertrials in India, judicial viewpoint on the matter, factors leading to the same and how the pandemic has intensified the adversities of undertrials in India