COVID-19 prison-release policy upheld for economic offence and PMLA cases; court found no violation of bail remedies.

The Delhi High Court upheld the High Powered Committee's COVID-19 prison-release policy excluding persons facing economic offence, PMLA and specialised-agency cases from interim bail or parole consideration. The Court treated the exclusion as a class-based decision made on objective factors such as the nature and severity of the offence, not as an unconstitutional deprivation of liberty. It held that the Committee's minutes did not override the Code of Criminal Procedure, because regular or interim bail remedies before the competent court remained available on merits. The challenge under Articles 14 and 21 therefore failed, and the prayer to quash the minutes was declined.

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Issues: Whether the minutes of the High Powered Committee excluding persons facing economic offence and PMLA-related cases from consideration for interim bail or parole during the COVID-19 pandemic were arbitrary or unconstitutional, and whether the petitioner was entitled to quashing of those minutes.

Analysis: The applicable COVID-19 prison-release framework left it to the High Powered Committee to identify categories of prisoners for interim bail or parole based on the nature and severity of the offence and other relevant factors. The exclusion of cases involving economic offences, PMLA, and investigations by specialised agencies was treated as a class-based policy decision taken on objective considerations and not as a prisoner-specific denial of liberty. The availability of regular or interim bail under the criminal procedure law remained unaffected, and the petitioner was not deprived of the statutory remedy of moving the competent court on merits. The Court therefore rejected the contention that the committee minutes supplanted the Code of Criminal Procedure or violated Articles 14 and 21.

Conclusion: The challenge to the committee minutes failed, and the prayer for quashing them was declined.

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