Chennai:
Taking a serious view over non compliance of its order on premature release of five life convicts, the Madras High Court on Wednesday issued notice to the Tamil Nadu Home Secretary and two other officials, directing them to either abide by the directive or get orders from the Supreme Court.
A Division Bench, comprising Justices M M Sundresh and R M T Teekaa Raman issued statutory notices to Home Secretary Niranjan Mardi, Additional DGP Abash Kumar and Coimbatore Central Prison Superintendent, R Krishna Raj passing order on a batch of five contempt petitions.
The Bench said it has no other option.
“We are constrained to admit these contempt petitions and issue statutory notice to the respondents.”
The five petitioners sought to punish the authorities for not obeying the High Court’s orders passed in 2018 and early this year, directing the premature release of five convicts as per a Government Order dated February 2, 2018.
Originally, the government had ordered the premature release of over 1,000 life convicts in connection with the 100th birth anniversary celebrations of former Chief Minister and AIADMK founder M G Ramachandran and the State had issued a G.O for the purpose.
As the petitioners, who were convicted for murder and sentenced to life imprisonment were not released, their close relatives moved the High Court, which ordered their premature release.
Since the authorities did not oblige despite the High Court’s orders, contempt applications seeking to punish the officials were preferred.
When the matter came up for hearing on several occasions, the government counsel prayed for time to honour the court order.
Eventually, the Additional Advocate General apprised the judges that the State had preferred appeals in the Supreme Court and these were expected to come up for hearing.
The bench then ordered statutory notice, requiring the trio to appear before it in four weeks or obtain appropriate orders from the Supreme Court so that they need not appear before it.
