International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research

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Prison Overcrowding in India: Undertrial Detention and the Limits of Section 479 BNSS

Author(s) Mr. Shaik Ahmed Bawazeer, Mr. Syed Parvez
Country India
Abstract Indian prisons have held more people than they were built for in every year for well over a decade. Figures published by the National Crime Records Bureau show that national occupancy fell from 131.4 per cent in 2022 to about 112.7 per cent in 2024, but undertrial prisoners still make up roughly three out of every four inmates. This paper argues that overcrowding in India is, in substance, an undertrial problem, and that it persists less because the law is badly designed than because its release mechanisms are applied slowly and unevenly. Following a doctrinal method, it reads the case law on Article 21 alongside Section 436A of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 and its successor, Section 479 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, and uses official data and recent Supreme Court orders to test how these provisions have worked in practice. Section 479 is found to improve on the older law by placing a duty on the jail superintendent to move the court, but to narrow it by excluding offences punishable with life imprisonment and by denying its benefit to persons facing more than one case. The paper also observes that undertrials, who form most of the crowded population, are the group least likely to receive any correctional programming. It closes with suggestions on automatic computation of eligibility, the surety problem, Undertrial Review Committees and the exclusions in Section 479.
Keywords Prison Overcrowding, Undertrial Prisoners, Section 479 BNSS, Section 436A CrPC, Bail, Article 21, Rehabilitation
Field Sociology > Administration / Law / Management
Published In Volume 8, Issue 5, September-October 2026
Published On 2026-10-21
DOI https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i05.90155
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CrossRef DOI prefix of IJFMR is 10.36948/ijfmr

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