Delhi High Court has taken a big step for the early release of prisoners granted bail. Recently, the court has ordered all the jail superintendents of the capital to use the Aadhaar QR code verification application to speed up the release of prisoners granted bail. A division bench of Justices Pratibha M Singh and Amit Mahajan gave this order on May 22. The court passed this order in view of the repeated delays, sometimes by more than 50 days, in releasing convicts and undertrial prisoners after getting bail.
The court also said that it takes a lot of time to verify the identity and credentials of the sureties. The surety is a third party. Usually a friend or relative, who guarantees to the court that the accused will appear in all the scheduled hearings. Therefore, to avoid delays, the court suggested the use of Aadhaar based verification apps.
What did the High Court say?
The High Court has ordered that henceforth, all Jail Superintendents across Delhi will take these steps to expedite the verification of sureties and completion of formalities in respect of bail orders. Verification of sureties and related credentials can be done through the following applications by scanning the secure QR code on their Aadhaar card-
- aadhaar qr scanner app
- M-Aadhaar App (C) Aadhaar App
The court said that after receiving the details from these applications, if further verification is required, it will also be done expeditiously. For the purpose of verification of any FD or any other monetary instrument issued by the bank, the Jail Superintendent will continue to do the same through email and the concerned bank/financial institution will respond to the same immediately. If necessary, the Jail Superintendent is also free to inform the banks of this order whenever they are seeking verification of any FD or monetary instrument for the purpose of verification of surety.
Average time to release?
In fact, the Delhi High Court passed these directions while hearing a suo motu case initiated after a prisoner remained in custody for more than a week despite being granted bail because the jail superintendent had not completed the verification formalities. Data presented before the court showed that the average time taken to release undertrial prisoners and convicts after bail orders between February 1 and February 15, 2026, was 5 to 6 days.
In some cases, the delay extended to 33 or 56 days due to inter-state verification and scrutiny of financial instruments presented as collateral. During the hearing, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) officials informed the court that Aadhaar verification technology is already being used in jails across the country for verification of visitors.
He also showcased the mobile application capable of instantly verifying Aadhaar credentials through QR code scanning. In view of this, the court directed UIDAI to file an affidavit explaining how Aadhaar verification measures are being implemented in jails and trial courts across the country in compliance with the directions of several High Courts.
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