Judgment

BHAGWATI, J. :- This case before us is on a letter dated November 28, 1980 addressed to the Court by one Dr. Vasudha Dhagamwar, a researcher and Social Scientist working in the Santhal Praganas of the State of Bihar. It represents one more instance of the utter callousness and indifference of our legal and judicial system to the under-trial prisoners languishing in the jails. It seems that once a person accused of an offence is lodged in the jail everyone forgets about him and no one bothers to care what is happening to him. He becomes a mere ticket number-a forgotten specimen of humanity-cut off and alienated from the society, an unfortunate victim of a heartless legal and judicial system which consigns him to long unending years of oblivion in jail.

2. Here is a case where four young boys who are designated as petitioners in the writ petition have been in Pakud sub-jail in Santhal Praganas for a period of about eight years without their trial having made any progress. They all belong to the Paharia Tribe which is admittedly a backward tribe. Two of them were arrested on 26th Nov., 1972 while the other two, on 19th Dec., 1972. The jail record shows the ages of the petitione