Maharashtra HC Directs Govt. To Probe Life Convicts Overstay In Jails

Maharashtra HC Directs Govt. To Probe Life Convicts Overstay In Jails 1/23/2009 The Bombay High Court has directed the Maharashtra government to set up a committee to probe the overstay of the life convicts in jails across the state and to take action against the officers responsible. While disposing the petition, a division bench of Justices Bilal Nazki and Anoop Mohta ordered the state to ensure that in future, no convicts should overstay in jails. The court issued the directives after it was informed that the Home department had not been following a standard practice of processing the release files of convicts once they complete 12 years of their sentences. The court had earlier ordered the release of 294 life convicts in the state who have served their 14-year term but are still behind bars de to bureaucratic ineptitude. If somebody’s life sentence is 14 years, then it cannot be interpreted as 14 years and one day. It has to end at the end of 14 years, the court observed. The court was hearing the case of one Vishwajeet Khanvanekar, who was arrested on a murder charge and was serving his life term at Yerwada jail. It ended in early 2008. However, he was not discharged from jail as his file was not processed in time, said the petitioner’s lawyer Madhav Jamdar. The petitioner had to serve an additional eight months before he was released in November last year, he added. ‘Life, according to the law, is till men died. But if the government has exercised special powers to release them according to the guidelines, then why should they be held even for a day more?’ remarked Justice Nazki. During the hearing, the court came down heavily on DIG (Prisons) for not filing an affidavit in person and rather instructing his personal assistant to file it. The DIG did not file it himself and ask his PA to file it. Is this the way to treat a court order? The court remarked while it summoned the officer. UNI

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