Overview
- Speaking at NALSAR University of Law in Hyderabad, the Supreme Court judge cited data showing roughly seven in ten inmates have not been convicted.
- He highlighted cases of undertrials jailed longer than the maximum sentence and people accused of bailable offences who remain in custody for want of bail.
- He said courts, prisons and legal services authorities operate in silos and urged a single line of accountability from first hearing to final outcome.
- He flagged low awareness and mistrust of state legal aid and insisted that representation must be effective rather than merely procedural.
- He urged law schools to make legal-aid clinics hands-on and called for sensitivity toward women, people with mental-health needs and marginalised groups, with no immediate policy commitments announced.