The Supreme Court asked the Centre on Friday to consider dropping proceedings against undertrials who are involved in not very serious offences and have spent one third of the maximum sentence and free them as a one-time measure on the 75th year of Independence. More than 76% of prisoners are undertrials, it said, most of them poor and illiterate, reports Amit Anand Choudhary. Calling for “out of the box thinking”, the bench said the move would help deal with crowding of jails and pendency in courts.