HC seeks response of Delhi govt on PIL on remission of prisoners' sentence

The Delhi High Court today sought response of the AAP government and the prison authorities on a PIL for immediately holding a meeting of the Sentence Review Board (SRB) to consider the pleas for remission of jail term of prisoners, some of whom are elderly and "languishing" in the Tihar Jail for 20-25 years.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar issued notice to the Delhi government and the Director General of Prisons seeking their stand on the plea by a lawyer who has contended that meetings of the SRB are not held as often as they should be.

The petitioner, advocate Sumeet Verma, said any further delay in consideration of the cases of the inmates by the SRB would be "absolutely arbitrary and contrary to the constitutional scheme".

He has said in his plea that SRB meetings are required to be held every quarter, but in practice they are held twice or maximum thrice a year and this has been the trend for the last several years.

The plea said that over 150 prisoners' cases are due to be reviewed by the SRB for premature release, but the Board was yet to meet after its meeting in December last year.

Verma has said that many of the prisoners languishing in jail for 20-25 years are not habitual offenders and have been maintaining an overall good conduct.