In Brief
During the COVID-19 pandemic, a High Powered Committee in Maharashtra classified prisoners eligible for interim bail to decongest overcrowded prisons while maintaining social distance. A public interest petition challenged this categorisation as discriminatory, seeking wider release of life-sentenced prisoners and those under special statutes. The Supreme Court upheld the Committee's decision, holding that reasonable classification based on offence severity and punishment length does not violate Article 14. Since interim bail was an extraordinary pandemic measure (not a statutory right), judicial interference was not warranted unless the criteria was arbitrary. Individual discrimination within categories remains open to challenge.
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