The Gujarat High Court has ordered the state government to grant Rs 1 lakh to a convict after he served three extra years in prison as the jail authorities claimed they could not open his bail order attachment sent along with an email.

The convict identified as Chandanji Thakor had secured bail in 2020. However, he continued to languish in jail for another three years as the prison authorities said they could not open the bail order which was sent to them by the High Court registry as an attachment to email.

“In the present case, the registry of this Court had categorically informed the jail authorities about the order passed by this Court releasing the applicant on regular bail. It is not the case that such E-mail was not received by the jail authorities. It is the case of the jail authorities that necessary action could not be taken in view of the COVID-19 pandemic and though they have received the E-mail, they were unable to open the attachment,” the court said.

“The applicant, though was released and could have enjoyed his freedom, was forced to remain in jail only because no attention was paid by the jail authorities to contact the Registry or Sessions Court with regard to the order passed by this Court,” it added.

Considering the plight of the prisoner who spent almost three years in jail despite having secured bail, the court granted Rs 1 lakh compensation to him.

The High Court further noted that though the email was sent to District Sessions Court too, no efforts were made by the Court to see that the order releasing the convict on bail was appropriately implemented.

The compensation amount is to be handed over to the convict within a period of 14 days.