In a day when Jharkhand High Court hurried Chief Minister Hemant Soren to convene a meeting of the State Sentence Remission Board, it also directed the State Government to expedite the premature release of all the life convicts who have completed their jail term of 14 years in view of the Supreme Court guidelines.
The court also observed that the jail administration need not wait for the inmates to make an application for remission. “Instead, it should take suo motto step and forward the cases to the State Sentence Remission Board as soon as a life convict completes 14 years of term and 20 years with remission,” the court observed. “The court asked to explain the policy which is being adopted by the state in order to release the lifers who have actually completed the term of 14 years and 20 years with remission,” added Additional Advocate General (AAG) Jai Prakash. The court also asked to make all efforts to ensure the release of other 46 prisoners and submit a status report after two weeks, he added.
The court was hearing a case on which it took suo-motto cognizance of the reports published in 'The Pioneer' relating to the hunger strike observed by several inmates lodged in various jails across the State even after completion of their term as lifers. A division bench of Chief Justice R Banumathi and Justice S Chandrashekher on Thursday had issued notices to Jharkhand Home Secretary, Inspector General (Prison), law & Justice Secretary and other officials asking to submit a status report before it within 24 hours.
“As we did not get enough time to prepare the affidavit we asked for some more time from the court to prepare it but have informed that the strike has been called off after the date of meeting was fixed to consider the cases,” said the AAG. According to the AAG, the court wanted to know why the meeting did not take place since the last one year. “I explained to the court that the meeting was scheduled to take place in November 2013 but was cancelled in the light of the Supreme Court judgment given in August 2012 making it mandatory for the State to seek opinion from the presiding officers of the concerned court,” he pointed out.
“Since in most of the cases the presiding officers had been transferred to the other places or had retired due to which the reports could not be received,” added the AAG. Some of the reports however, have been received and a meeting has been called in this regard,” he said. The AAG submitted before the court that a total of 152 cases are pending before the state of which 106 were taken up in the meeting on Friday by the seven-member State Sentence Remission Board while the rest of the cases will be taken up as soon as the reports are received by the government.
The board comprises State Home Minister as Chairman, two Members - law Secretary and Home Secretary, IG Prisons as Member Secretary, one representative of Jharkhand High Court, DGP of the state or his representative and Principal Probation Officer of Ranchi. Several prisoners had gone on strike in different jails of Jharkhand demanding the release of those who have completed their sentences. The prisoners, who had been awarded life sentences, have completed their sentences and had served for more than 20 years. The prisoners reportedly were agitating under the banner of Jharkhand Bandi Mukti Committee and Bhrashtachar Pratirodh Sangharsh Morcha.