less than a week after Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan defended the decision to extend Sanjay Dutt’s parole in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case saying that it was “as per law”, the Bombay High Court on Tuesday upbraided the Congress-led DF Government for showing “extra diligence” to the Bollywood actor vis-à-vis other convicts.
“This type of diligence is not shown for all convicts. Why does the State Government adopt a casual approach when the convict is a common manIJ. We have seen in many cases convicts approach us stating their parole and furlough applications are not decided for months together and then we have to interfere and direct for their pleas to be processed,” a HC division bench observed, while hearing a PIl against the extension of actor’s parole.
Taking serious cognisance of the “extra-diligence” shown to Sanjay, a division bench of justices NH Patil and Vl Achliya directed the state’s Chief Secretary JS Saharia to set up a committee comprising senior home, law and judiciary department officials, representatives of jail administration and other competent officers to suggest amendments to the rules and procedures adopted while screening applications made by convicts for parole and furlough.
On February 18, the Pune Revenue divisional administration had extended Sanjay’s parole by 30 more days on the ground that he wanted to “take care of” his wife Manyata.The grant of a second 30-day extension of parole to Sanjay had come three days ahead of his scheduled return to Pune’s Yerwada Central prison to serve the remainder of 42 months’ jail term.
Questioning the Pune revenue administration’s decision to grant second parole extension to the actor, Justice Achliya observed, “The medical report says she (Manyata) is suffering from TB and requires treatment at home and that she may require surgery in future. There are cases where convicts who are themselves suffering from cancer and other life threatening diseases are not granted parole”
Sanjay Dutt, who had been released on a 30-day parole, was to return to prison on or before February 21.Justice Patil went on to add: “We are not saying that his wife is not that ill as it is made out to be. Pain and suffering is equal to all. But the discrimination is done by the state government”.
The judges took exception to the fact that while granting Dutt parole, the Pune divisional revenue administration had imposed a bond of only Rs 5000 on the actor.”In every other case we have seen bonds of Rs 10000, Rs 15000 and 20000 being levied and poor convicts approach high court seeking for the bond amount to be lowered. Suddenly in this case you have come down to Rs 5000. The authorities should exercise their discretion properly,” the HC bench observed.
“The government, we have noticed, has issued circulars from time to time asking all divisional commissioners to consider and decide parole and furlough applications in a time bound manner. But these circulars are being violated by your own officers. No corrective steps are being taken,” Justice Patil said.
In its directive to the State Chief Secretary, the HC bench asked the state government to constitute a committee to suggest amendments to rules and machinery governing parole and furlough.
Averring that the rules and procedures governing parole and furlough warranted radical changes, the judges asked the state government to intimate it within four weeks on the steps taken in that regard.
Earlier, the petitioner’s lawyer Nikhil Chaudhari argued that the actor’s application for parole and then its extension were considered and decided within a week, while similar applications of other convicts were kept pending for months together.
Chaudhary went onto cite the instances of the convicts in the same 1993 serial blasts case like Zaibunissa Kazi, who is suffering from kidney failure and Farooq Motorwala, whose wife is suffering from serious illness, in this regard.
In fact, the latest extension of parole till March 20 has facilitated the Bollywood actor to stay out of the prison for four months ever since he surrendered before a designated TADA court in Mumbai on May 16 to serve the remaining42 months’ jail term in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case.
Sanjay, who had initially been released on a 14-day- furlough from the Yerwarda prison on October 1, had succeeded in getting an extension of leave for another 14 days, a grace period that had come in handy for him to spend more time with his family and also to undergo treatment of blood clots formed in his legs. He had returned to the Yerwada prison on October 30.
“In October, 2013 he was granted furlough of 28 days and then in December he was granted parole and is out since then. Dutt has availed 118 days of furlough and leave in nine months,” Chaudhari said.Defending Pune Divisional Commissioner Prabhakar Deshmukh’s decision to extend his client’s parole, the actor’s lawyer Hitesh Jain reeled out statistics obtained through RTI.
“In 2011, the divisional commissioner granted 718 pleas and rejected 3. In 2012, 373 were granted and only one was rejected. In 2013, 359 were granted and 11 rejected. The divisional commissioner is lenient in general and has not shown any bias towards Dutt,” Jain said.
On February 19, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan had defended the decision to grant second parole extension to the actror, saying the action was taken as per law and no rules were violated.
“The actor’s parole has been extended as per law. While granting parole to a convict, a specified number of days are fixed. In the actor’s case, no rules have been violated. The authorities concerned take these decisions, after following due procedures. There is no politics in this,” the chief minister had said, while reacting to Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray’s criticism that the DF government was meting out “preferential treatment” to the actor.