No sentence review meets this year: PIL

NEW DELHI: Not a single Sentence Review Board (SRB) meeting has been held for prisoners in Delhi in 2018, a PIL informed the high court on Wednesday. The one scheduled on April 24, was postponed indefinitely, the PIL added, even though it was being convened almost a month after the mandatory three-month period which fell in March 2018.
As reported earlier, the April SRB meeting was set to consider remission cases of convicts that included Jessica Lal murder convict Manu Sharma and Tandoor murder convict Sushil Sharma, but it was cancelled on the instructions of Delhi home minister Satyendar Jain.
A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar sought a response from the AAP government and the director general, Prisons, while issuing notice on the PIL. HC also sought status reports from both authorities and indicated it might issue directions on the next date of hearing in the matter.
It was hearing a PIL filed by advocate Sumeet Verma seeking directions to immediately hold a meeting of the SRB to consider the plea for remission of jail term of prisoners, some of whom are elderly and “languishing” in Tihar Jail for 20-25 years.
Verma cited details of past few years pointing out that in 2016 and 2017 too, only three SRB meetings were held annually even though the rules make it mandatory for the government and prison authorities to ensure that at least one SRB meeting is held every three months.
The advocate maintained that any further delay in consideration of the cases of the inmates by the SRB would be “absolutely arbitrary and contrary to the constitutional scheme”.
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 it last convened in December 2017.