By IANS
New Delhi : Union Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta Monday appeared before the Supreme Court and regretted the absence of a law officer on Oct 10 during the hearing of a case on uniform guidelines for the release of lifers languishing in jails for more than 14 years.
Appearing with Solicitor General G.E. Vahanvati before the bench of Justice H.K. Sema, Gupta assured the court that the central government would file within four weeks its elaborate response on the plea for uniform guidelines on the release of lifers.
Earlier, explaining the absence of law officers during the Oct 10 hearing, Vahanvati said he was unable to appear in the court as he was away from Delhi on important government business.
But the court did not sound convinced. It remarked: “There is no dearth of law officers.”
Furious that no government counsel was present during the hearing of a public interest lawsuit seeking guidelines for release of lifers who have spent 14 years in jail, the bench had Oct 10 ordered that Gupta and Vahanvati be personally present in court.
The bench also noted that the union government was yet to file its detailed affidavit on the crucial issue — even as all the states and union territories had submitted their affidavits.
The lawsuit was filed after the premature release of nearly dozen prisoners undergoing life imprisonment in 1999 by Haryana’s erstwhile Om Prakash Chautala government in the run up to the state assembly elections.
Many of the prisoners, who were released even before serving a five-year term in jail, had been chosen because of their proximity with the political bosses of the government, said advocate Anil Sharma in his petition.
Later, more public interest lawsuits were filed on the issue, including one by advocate M.K. Balkrishnan.
Balkrishnan said in his petition that the apex court in its 1981 rulings, known as Maru Ram versus Union of India, had held that a life convict is liable to languish in jail till death unless his sentence is remitted by jail authorities after 14 years of jail term under section 433 A of the Criminal Procedure Code.
The remission granted by the jail authorities generally depend upon their discretion and largely happen to be devoid of any judicious approach.