The Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed the AAP Government to consider afresh former Haryana chief minister OP Chautala’s plea for early release from jail in a teachers’ recruitment scam.
A bench of Justices Manmohan and Sangita Dhingra Sehgal set aside the Delhi government’s April 3 order of rejecting Chautala’s plea to grant special remission on the occasion of 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi as notified by the Central government.
The bench made it clear that it had not expressed any opinion regarding the early release of 84-year-old Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) chief.
In his plea filed through advocate Amit Sahni, Chautala had submitted that he deserved to be released early under the Centre’s policy of special remission as he had already spent seven years in prison.
The plea was opposed by the Delhi government, which had said Chautala was not eligible for the relief as he was convicted under the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act and as per the proviso of the government notification, such convicts cannot be granted special remission.
Chautala had claimed in his plea that he should be considered for release from jail in view of his old age and disability as also the period of seven years already undergone by him behind bars.
His counsel had argued that the maximum sentence prescribed under the anti-corruption law at the time of Chautala’s conviction in 2013 was seven years and, therefore, the incarceration under Section 120B (criminal conspiracy) in this case cannot exceed seven years.
The petition had referred to the central government’s July 18, 2018, special remission notification, by which the relief could be granted to certain categories of prisoners and they were to be released in three phases with effect from October last year.
As per the notification, the special remission has to be given to women and transgender convicts of 55 years of age who have completed 50 per cent of their actual jail term, male convicts of 60 years of age and who have completed half of their sentence period.