SC's fiat to Centre on Indian prisoner languishing in Pak jail

The Supreme Court today asked Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium to take instructions from the Centre on the plea of an Indian prisoner languishing in a Pakistani jail for the last 26 years on the charge of spying. A Bench of Justices Markandeya Katju and T S Thakur passed the direction on a fresh application filed by the prisoner Gopal Dass' family through counsel Arvind Sharma complaining that the Centre was not taking any step to take him back despite Pakistan government's decision to release him. The counsel submitted that Dass was arrested in 1984 on the false charge of espionage by Pakistan government and was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment by the court there. He claimed Dass, a native of Punjabs' Gurdaspur district, was just 22 years when he had inadvertently strayed into the Pakistani territory leading to his arrest on the false charge of espionage. According to the counsel, though Pakistani authorites had released him 2007 after he had served the sentence, the Centre was unwilling to take him back on the ground that he was not a citizen of this country. The Bench, which was initially not inclined to interfere, later relented and asked the Solicitor General to take instructions from government and adjourned the matter. "How can Indian courts pass directions to foreign countries? You approach Pakistani courts," the Bench had initially said. However, it later relented after the counsel submitted that it were the Indian authorities which were not willing to take him back even though Pakistani authorities had agreed to release him as he had completed his sentence.