(1) THIS writ petition has come up today before us for directions since there are a large number of prisoners in the State of Bihar who have been in jail for more than 12 months after the commitment of their cases to the Court of Session and there are also a considerable number of prisoners who have been injail for more than 18 months without any enquiry or trial having commenced in the courts of Magistrates. We are glad to learn that the four petitioners whose case is set in motion have been acquitted after a trial which was denied to them for a period of eight years. Their acquittal highlights the tremendous amount of misery and suffering which these four young boys who have been ultimately found to be innocent must have undergone in jail for a period of eight years without anyone being there to look after them or to take care of their interest. We are indeed thankful to Dr. (Miss) Vasudha for having drawn our attention to the unfortunate case of these four petitioners. Now ordinarily, we would not have proceeded further with the matter after the immediate relief which was sought by the petitioners was obtained and they were acquitted but the statements which have been placed before us by the State of Bihar and the High court disclose an alarming state of affairs so far as administration of justice in the State of Bihar is concerned. We had occasion to make observations in regard to the highly disturbing situation which prevails in the justice system in the State of Bihar when we made interim orders in Hussainara Khatoon case last year but despite the observations made by us it does not seem that any improvement has taken place. The position continues to be very distressing and there are large number of prisoners still languishing in jail without their trial having commenced. The figures furnished by the State of Bihar and the High court are sufficient to shock the conscience of any Judge or for that matter even of any citizen of this country because we .find that 18133 sessions cases are pending in different Sessions courts in the State of Bihar as on 31/12/1980 where the commitment was made more than 12 months ago and the sessions trial have not yet commenced. We are not mentioning here the number of prisoners who are awaiting enquiry or trial before the Magistrate in different courts in State of Bihar because the list is very long and the number is very large. We fail to understand why necessary steps are not being taken by the authorities concerned whether they be State government or the High Court for the purpose of remedying this most unsatisfactory state of affairs. We asked Mr Mudgal, learned Advocate appearing on behalf of the petitioners, to prepare a list giving the particulars of the prisoners whose cases have been committed to the courts of Session prior to 31/12/1976 and whose trials have not yet commenced. Mr Mudgal has prepared such.a list from the record furnished to us by the State government and the High Court and we find from the list that 313 prisoners are rotting in jail awaiting trial though their cases have been committed to the court of Session prior to 31/12/1976; this list also includes a large number of prisoners whose cases have been committed even prior to 31/12/1974. It is incomprehensible to our mind as to how sessions cases could remain pending in the Sessions court in the State of Bihar for five to seven years after commitment. Mr Mudgal has also prepared another list from the record before the court giving the details of prisoners who are awaiting commitment since prior to 31/12/1976. The number of these prisoners runs to 99 and some of them have been awaiting commitment since prior to 31/12/1976. This list clearly shows that even committal enquiries have not been held in the cases of these 99 prisoners for about five to seven years. They have been in jail for such a long period even before commitment and we shudder to think how much more they would have to remain in jail after comm