The Karnataka High Court has stepped in to address the plight of a mentally ill undertrial prisoner who has remained incarcerated in Bengaluru Central Prison for 21 years without ever facing trial, following revelations that trial court authorities cannot locate his case records.
Hearing the petition on Tuesday, Justice C M Poonacha ordered that the Karnataka State Legal Services Authority be added as a respondent to the proceedings. The court scheduled the next hearing for Thursday. The plea requests urgent directions compelling the trial court to trace and furnish the judicial records of the undertrial, V Srinivasa, after local court officials confirmed the physical file was missing.
Missing Case File and Pro Bono Intervention
Srinivasa was initially arrested in 2005 by the Kolar rural police on charges of killing his wife. After the trial court rejected his bail application, he remained behind bars. The case was brought to the High Court by advocates Vikram Raj A and Ashwin Joyston Kutinha, who took up Srinivasa’s representation pro bono.
The disappearance of the records came to light in August, when the two lawyers submitted an application to the Kolar trial court seeking certified copies of the proceedings. The Principal District and Sessions Judge returned the request that very day, stating that the file had not arrived from the central record room. The advocates subsequently visited Srinivasa at Bengaluru Central Prison on September 7 before petitioning the High Court, asserting that administrative negligence and lost files cannot be used to deprive a citizen of fundamental liberty.
Advocate Kutinha noted that the trial court remains legally bound to locate the proceedings and supply certified copies, adding that institutional inability to trace files cannot strip a prisoner of access to his own legal process. Advocate Raj explained that the petition aims to establish the exact legal status of the case and verify whether authorities adhered to mandatory protective directives previously laid down by the Supreme Court of India.
Decade of Inaction Followed Mental Illness Finding
Concerns regarding Srinivasa’s mental condition were first formally raised by prison officials during proceedings in 2005. Following an evaluation conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), the trial court determined on September 3, 2015, that Srinivasa suffered from an unsound mind and was unfit to stand trial.
Under that 2015 order, the trial court halted all criminal proceedings against him and directed his transfer to either the psychiatric wing of Bengaluru Central Prison or the mental hospital located in Dharwad. The court also ordered authorities to submit periodic assessments detailing his mental condition. However, that ruling marks the final entry in Srinivasa’s judicial record. Despite the lack of an outcome or trial, the judicial system’s electronic portal currently lists the case as disposed of.
Violation of Mandatory Supreme Court Guidelines
The petition underscores that Srinivasa’s prolonged detention violates established Supreme Court mandates governing undertrial prisoners with psychiatric conditions. Those procedural safeguards originated from the apex court’s intervention following the case of Assam resident Machal Lalung, who spent 38 years in a psychiatric institution as an undertrial before being highlighted in a 2005 news report.
Under the Supreme Court’s binding instructions, mentally ill undertrials accused of serious offences must receive routine medical assessments, their mental fitness evaluations must be forwarded regularly to the relevant sessions court, and the presiding court must conduct a formal judicial review of every such case at least once every three months.
