NEW DELHI: Tihar Jail will release 3,000 inmates to avoid overcrowding in jail. The inmates who have been jailed for a long time and had applied for parole would be included in this lot. Jail officials say the decision was taken as the cells housing inmates jailed for crimes that attract a punishment of less than seven years were found to be crowded beyond capacity.Tihar DG Sandeep Goel said they will try to release around 1,500 convicts who have applied for parole or furlough. The same number of undertrial prisoners who are eligible for interim bail would be released.Goel said the jail authorities will hold meetings with legal experts from the Delhi government to screen these inmates and consider each case before the final release. The prisoners who are likely to be released have, however, been informed about it.Jail sources say that most of the inmates who are to be released would be either foreign prisoners who have nearly completed their jail terms or those whose bail pleas are still being considered. The jail authorities would first send a list of these prisoners to the court after which clearance would be given based on which the release documents will be prepared.Earlier in the day, Delhi government had told the high court that it planned to decongest the prisons in wake of the novel coronavirus menace and would be taking immediate steps. It said that for convicts, special parole and furlough provisions had been made, while for undertrials – who form a majority of inmates – it was drawing up a plan for 45-day bail in non-heinous cases for which an undertrial has spent three months in jail.For this purpose it will amend prison rules, the government told a bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Subramonium Prasad which was hearing a plea by advocate Shobha Gupta seeking decongestion of the prisons in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.Delhi government’s additional standing counsel, Anuj Aggarwal, told the bench that a notification will be issued within a day to amend the prison rules to include new provisions after which HC disposed of the matter, taking note that a similar issue has been taken up by the Supreme Court suo moto where it also issued directions on Monday.The government plans to provide a 60-day parole in one spell in case of emergent situations like an epidemic or a natural disaster or any other situation which warrants easing of the inmate population for convicts while another provision will provide for temporary facility of a special furlough. These provisions will be available for eligible prisoners who have served a minimum one year of the sentence awarded to them, Aggarwal told the court.As regards undertrials, HC noted in its order the stand of the government that it wants to reduce the number by fast-tracking their bail process or by granting interim bail on a personal bond to those booked for offences where punishment is seven years or less and the inmate has completed minimum three months in jail.Aggarwal said Delhi State Legal Services Authority and the district judge concerned will be holding a meeting to work out the modalities.Meanwhile, jail officials have stopped one-to-one meetings between inmates and their family members.