New Delhi, Oct. 2 -- The Supreme Court has approved an action plan introduced by the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir to have a "red folder" for identifying cases where undertrial prisoners are in custody for over five years and ensure their speedy disposal. In 15 of these cases, where the undertrial prisoners are in custody for over 12 years, the court directed the UT's prosecution wing to complete the trial in six months from today. Of these 15 cases, two involve Pakistani nationals, who are facing charges under the Arms Act and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. A bench of justices JB Pardiwala and KV Viswanathan passed the order on a petition filed by one Anoop Singh, an undertrial prisoner in J&K, languishing in jail for more than five years. On hearing his case, the court expanded the scope of the petition and directed the UT administration to produce a list of all such pending criminal trials where the accused have been incarcerated for periods beyond five years. The court further directed the state to suggest an action plan for speedy disposal of such cases. In April this year, the information submitted by the J&K administration stated that 351 trials are pending in the state where the accused undertrial prisoners are languishing in jail for periods beyond five years. Of these, the court noticed that 15 are such which have suffered incarceration beyond 12 years. There was one case out of the 12 where the undertrial prisoner was in jail for 17 years. Additional solicitor general (ASG) Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the UT administration, said that the state will complete trials in the 15 cases within six months. She stated that an action plan has been prepared by which the cases where prisoners are in jail without trial for over five years will be demarcated with a "red file" to depict the urgency of the matter. The bench on Wednesday said, "We direct the state to ensure all 15 trials are completed within a period of six months from today. All steps necessary for effective disposal of these cases shall be undertaken without fail." The court took the plan submitted by the UT administration on record and said, "The Action Plan shall be implemented by the state in true spirit." According to the plan, the public prosecutors will segregate the 351 trials where accused are incarcerated for a period beyond five years as per the stage of trial, so that efforts can be made for disposal of the cases at advance stage. Under the "Red Folder" system proposed by the UT, "All the public prosecutors have been directed to physically categorise and mark every case diary/ shadow file falling in the list with a red tag/folder for immediate visual identification by the prosecution." The deputy director prosecution will fortnightly review the progress of all the cases falling under the list with the respective conducting public prosecutor, along with a monthly review by the prosecution department and a monthly review by the home department. A Pairavi (advocacy) Cell will be created in all district prosecution offices and courts to ensure timely execution of summons to witnesses and ensure their presence during trials. This cell shall verify current addresses of all remaining witnesses and track the summons until service is confirmed. The cell will liaise with the jurisdictional police stations to ensure presence of these witnesses on the date of hearing....