Convene Sentence Review Board meetings every 3 months: Delhi HC to Kejriwal govt

The Delhi High Court on Monday directed the Kejriwal government to convene the meeting of Sentence Review Board (SRB) at an interval of every three months as per norms.

During the hearing of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by advocate Amit Sahni, a bench of Justices DN Patel and C Harishanker was apprised that SRB meeting was convened only once in the last one year, as against the norms.

The litigant submitted before the bench that the board met for only once between October 2018 and October 2019 on July 19 this year which is "in contravention of SRB notification dated July 16 and Rule 1249 of Delhi Prison Rule, 2018, which provides that the meeting of SRB should be held every three months".

Terming the issue as "serious", the bench said the state government should take the matter seriously so that the "sentence imposed on convict may be reviewed accordingly in compliance with the aforesaid rule".

"Respondents are directed to convene the meeting of SRB for considering cases of a convict for premature release in accordance with the rule 1249 of Delhi Prison Rules, 2018," the order stated.