PIL seeks premature release of prisoners in TN

A PIL was today filed in the Madras High Court seeking a direction to set free all life convicts, whose premature release was ordered by the Tamil Nadu government in February, at one go instead of adopting a piecemeal approach.

When the petition came up for hearing, a bench of justices C T Selvam and A M Basheer Ahamed posted it after four weeks.

Petitioner D Ganeswaran submitted that a government order was issued on February 1 for release of 1,600 life convicts who were in jail for more than 10 years.

However, only 67 prisoners were released in February.

Though all the 1,600 prisoners were screened properly and the government itself had recommended their names for release, this was being done in piecemeal manner causing anguish and stress among the life convicts, he contended.

He also claimed that already 50 convicts who had spent more than 10 years in jail had died.

Hence the court should direct the government to release all the prisoners in one stretch without any stringent conditions within a stipulated time frame, the petitioner said.

The government has announced the premature release of life convicts who had completed 10 years of imprisonment in commemoration of the birth centenary of late chief minister M G Ramachandran.