HC seeks Delhi govt reply over murder convict's plea for refund of deductions from wages

The Delhi High Court has sought the AAP government's response on a murder convict's plea seeking refund of the amount deducted from his wages towards a victim welfare fund.

Justice Najmi Waziri issued a notice to the Delhi government directing it to file a response by January 21 on the plea of a man who is serving life imprisonment at the Rohini jail here for a murder in 2009.

The court also directed the government to mention in the reply the deductions made in the wages of the murder convict who is behind bars since August 2014.

The inmate -- Rahul Dev -- moved the high court 10 days after it put on hold the Tihar Jail practice of deducting 25 per cent of the salaries of prisoners towards the victim welfare fund.

In his plea, filed through advocate Akshay Bhandari, Dev has contended that the amount deducted from his salary since his incarceration be refunded to him as the money has not been utilised at all.

The court on December 3 had stayed the deductions until February 8, 2019, the next date of hearing in a PIL which has opposed this practice in the Tihar Jail.

The PIL has sought quashing of an August 2006 notification and the Delhi Prison Rules of 1988 which mandate the deduction.

In the PIL before a different bench of the court, it has been contended that of the over Rs 15 crore collected since 2006 from wages of convicts lodged in the Tihar Jail, approximately only Rs 80.73 lakh has been disbursed to 194 eligible victims and the remaining over Rs 14 crore lay unused.

The rule for deducting 25 per cent of wages of prisoners was inserted in the Delhi Prison Rules when there was no provision for compensating victims under the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).

However, in 2009, a provision was inserted in the CrPC for putting in place a scheme for compensating victims or their dependants and after the December 16, 2012 gangrape case, the Delhi government had created a Victims Compensation Scheme.