HC fines Guj govt for delay in release of prisoner

The Gujarat High Court today ordered release of a prisoner serving life term in a murder case and asked the state government to give him Rs 50,000 compensation for delay in setting him free.
Justice A J Desai today ordered release of prisoner Prabhatji Dabhi serving life sentence in a murder case, and asked the government to pay him Rs 50,000 compensation for his "illegal detention" as he was entitled for release on January 26, as per the government's notification dated January 25, 2017.
The court gave the relief to the prisoner on his plea that he was denied the reprieve despite meeting the conditions in the state government notification for his release.

The state government's notification had allowed remission of sentences of the prisoners who had served 12 years in jail and had not absconded in the last 10 years.
The decision was taken on humanitarian ground to mark the Republic Day.
Petitioner Dabhi's lawyers had submitted to the court that despite fulfilling the criteria in the notification, Dabhi was not given the remission.

The government counsel, however, argued that the prisoner, serving life imprisonment for murder, had absconded before 10 years.
For his act, he had been slapped an extra one-year jail term.
Upholding the petitioner's contentions that he was being illegally detained, which amounts to violation of his human and fundamental rights, the court ordered his immediate release.