Thousands of prisoners in overcrowded jails across India are being released on interim bail or parole in an unparalleled step to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and pre-empt clashes, as authorities scramble to halt the pandemic that has already affected over a thousand in the country.

The move followed a March 23 order from the Supreme Court that all states and Union Territories set up high-level panels, which would consider releasing on parole all convicts jailed for up to seven years to decongest prisons.

In Delhi’s Tihar jail, 1,500 inmates are likely to be released soon, officials said on Monday.

Over 400 inmates, among a planned number of 3,000, have already come out in the first phase to decongest Asia’s largest jail complex, they said.

According to figures that the director-general, prisons, had provided for an official review meeting, the 16 jails in Delhi have 17,440 inmates, when their total capacity is for housing 10,026 prisoners. As many as 14,355 are undertrial prisoners.

The review meeting was also told that no case of Covid-19 had been detected among the inmates and every nook and corner of prison campuses was being sanitised and cleaned.

The number of cases in the country climbed to 1,071 on Monday, while the toll has risen to 29, according to the Union health ministry.

A meeting of a committee headed by Delhi High Court judge Justice Hima Kohli through videoconference decided to expedite the process of granting eight weeks’ parole to around 1,500 undertrial prisoners, under a newly incorporated provision.

However, prisoners undergoing trial in certain drug-related cases, those facing trial for sexually assaulting children, rape and acid attacks, foreign nationals, accused in corruption or money-laundering cases, and those under investigation in terror, anti-national or unlawful activities, would not be considered for interim bail, the committee said.

The process to release nearly 8,000 prisoners has begun in Madhya Pradesh, a senior official said in Bhopal.

Out of these 8,000 prisoners, 5,000 will be released on parole for 60 days while 3,000 prisoners, who were being tried for cases where the maximum sentence is less than five years, will be released on interim bail for 45 days.

The 125 jails in the state have the capacity to keep 28,601 prisoners, but house around 42,000 inmates.

In Uttar Pradesh, the state government has decided to give eight weeks’ interim bail to 11,000 prisoners whose maximum punishment is of seven years.