HC asks Delhi government to consider Chautala's plea for release from Tihar

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed the government of Delhi to consider the representation of former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, who has sought his early release from the Tihar jail.

The 83-year-old INLD patriarch had approached the court on Tuesday through his counsel Amit Sahni, seeking benefit as per the July 18, 2018 notification, whereby the Central government has asked all States and Union Territories to grant special remission to the male prisoners above 60, female and transgender prisoners above 55 after they have undergone half of their actual sentence.

Advocate Rahul Mehra, the standing counsel for Delhi government, told a division bench headed by Justice Siddharth Mridul that the city-state government would consider Chautala's representation, seeking his release as per the Centre's notification dated July 18, 2018.

The High Court also directed the state government to consider Chautala's plea within four weeks.

However, the Centre's notification further provides that those who are convicted under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and some other offences are not entitled to special remission.

Sahni told the court that "his client was convicted for ten years under the Indian Penal Code and seven years under the Prevention of Corruption Act. He has already undergone the sentence awarded under the Prevention of Corruption Act."

"Chautala has a permanent disability of 60 per cent as on April 2013, and later has undergone implantation of a pacemaker in June 2013. The disability is progressive and, at present, it is more than 70 per cent and he falls in two clauses of the said notification," he said.

Chautala is serving a ten-year jail term in a teachers' recruitment scam which took place in Haryana when he was the state's chief minister.