The Madras high court has issued statutory notice to state home secretary, Additional DGP and SP, Coimbatore Central Prison in connection with contempt of court cases. A division bench comprising Justices M.M.Sundresh and RMT. Teekaa Raman ordered issuance of statutory notice to state home secretary Niranjan Mardi, Additional DGP Abhash Kumar and Coimbatore Central Prison, SP R.Krishna Raj on a batch of contempt petitions, which sought to punish them for not obeying the orders of the court passed in 2018 and early 2019, which ordered premature release of certain convicts as per a G.O dated February 1, 2018.

Chennai: The Madras high court has issued statutory notice to state home secretary, Additional DGP and SP, Coimbatore Central Prison in connection with contempt of court cases.
A division bench comprising Justices M.M.Sundresh and RMT. Teekaa Raman ordered issuance of statutory notice to state home secretary Niranjan Mardi, Additional DGP Abhash Kumar and Coimbatore Central Prison, SP R.Krishna Raj on a batch of contempt petitions, which sought to punish them for not obeying the orders of the court passed in 2018 and early 2019, which ordered premature release of certain convicts as per a G.O dated February 1, 2018.
The bench was passing interim orders on five contempt petitions filed by Kaliammal and others.
Referring to the earlier orders, which ordered the release of certain convicts who were eligible as per the 2018 G.O, the bench said, “Having no other option, we are constrained to admit these contempt petitions and issue statutory notice to the respondents. Even here, we are inclined to inform the respondents to the effect that they either comply with the orders under contempt or get appropriate orders from the Supreme Court. In that case they need not appear before this court. Otherwise, they have to appear”.
The state government had ordered the premature release of over 1,000 life convicts on the occasion of the 100th birth anniversary of former chief minister M.G.Ramachandran. Since the petitioners’ relatives were eligible for premature release as per the G.O, the petitioners filed Habeas corpus petitions and the court ordered their release early. Since the authorities have not complied with the orders, the petitioners preferred the present contempt petitions.

You may also like...