Bhullar’s premature release: HC notice to NCT Delhi seeking reply on decision

Chandigarh: The Punjab government on Tuesday issued notice to the National Capital Territory (NCT) Delhi seeking its reply on the outcome of the December 14, 2022, meeting regarding the premature release of Davinder Pal Singh Bhullar, a convict in 1993 Delhi bomb blasts.During the previous hearing on April 12, a reply dated January 11, 2023, was filed by NCT Delhi and the central government, informing the HC that a meeting was held on December 14, 2022, with respect to the premature release of the applicant-petitioner (Bhullar) and the outcome of which is awaited.When the matter came up for hearing on Tuesday, nobody on behalf of the NCT appeared before the court to inform about the status of the matter and Justice Jasjit Singh Bedi issued a fresh notice to the NCT and the central government, seeking reply on the issue by August 16.The matter had reached the HC in the wake of a plea filed by Bhullar seeking his premature release from the jail. In his plea for release, Bhullar has argued that he has been denied the right to release despite having completed more than 27 years of actual sentence, whereas a person is entitled for release on completion of 20 years sentence.He has also sought directions to set-aside the order through which premature release was denied to him. Further directions have been sought that petitioner has become entitled to premature release on usual terms and conditions as per Delhi Prisons Rules, 2018 after completion of 14 years actual sentence and 20 years total sentence.Bhullar (58), a native of Dayalpura Bhaike in Bathinda district, is currently confined in Central Jail Amritsar in connection with the case registered against him under Tada and other related laws on September 1993 in connection with the Delhi bomb blast case, in which several persons had lost their lives. On August 25, 2001, he was awarded the death sentence by the Delhi court. In March 2014, the Supreme Court had commuted his death sentence into life imprisonment.He was transferred to Amritsar jail on June 12, 2015, from Tihar and is currently undergoing treatment for schizoaffective disorder at Government Medical College, Amritsar. He has undergone a custody of around 27 years.