By IANS
New Delhi : The Supreme Court will hear Thursday a petition against the Andhra Pradesh government’s move to release 1,500 prisoners on Independence Day.
The bench of Justices D.K. Jain and B.N. Agarwal has slated the petition by an Andhra Pradesh lawyer for hearing on Aug 16, a day after the prisoners are to be released.
The petition by Supreme Court advocate R. Chandrashekhar Reddy challenges the state government’s Aug 7 order for the release of prisoners, including several lifers and hardcore and notorious criminals, on the pretext of commemorating the 150th anniversary of the first war of Independence in 1857.
The prisoners listed for release include Congress party legislator Charitha Reddy’s husband Gouru Venkat Reddy, convicted on charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and jailed for 10 years.
Gouru Reddy had earlier been given a life sentence by the trial court, but the high court had reduced his jail term to 10 years after convicting him on the lesser charge of the unintentional murder.
In 2005, he had been granted a pardon by then state governor Sushil Kumar Shinde, who is currently union power minister. Shinde’s order had, however, had been set aside by the Supreme Court last year.
In his petition to the apex court, advocate Reddy contended that it had become routine for the Andhra Pradesh government to release a large number of prisoners, undergoing jail terms for heinous crimes like rape, murder and food adulteration.
Terming the decision irrational, illogical and illegal, he said the government was set to free 1,500 prisoners, forming a huge chunk of the 6,500 prisoners incarcerated in various jails across the state.
“The release of such a huge number of prisoners has become a regular phenomena in the Andhra Pradesh. While releasing such prisoners, the government pays scant regards to the sentiments of the victims of these criminals and neither assess its impact on the morale of the police force nor the criminal justice system of the state,” Reddy contended in his petition.
He has also challenged the state government’s consistent tendency to relax the eligibility criteria for grant of remission to the prisoners.
“Earlier, the lifers alone were eligible for remission of their sentences only after serving 14 years of jail term. But since 1995, the government has been consistently relaxing the norm for grant of remission to the prisoners,” said Reddy.
“But the government has now begun giving remission to lifers up to three years even after the completion of seven years of jail term by them,” he has stated.