SC slams Delhi govt over delay in deciding remission plea of convicts

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has slammed the Delhi government over the delay in deciding remission plea filed by 114 convicts including a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist who was convicted for conspiring to wage war against the country and was awarded life imprisonment.

A bench of justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan castigated states for mechanically rejecting remission plea of life convicts who have served more than 14 years in jail.

Additional Solicitor General Vikramjit Banerjee told the court that a meeting of the Sentence Review Board was held on December 21 to consider premature release of 114 eligible convicts, including Gafoor.

He submitted that draft minutes of the meeting have been forwarded to the home department of the Delhi government for submission to the Lieutenant Governor.

The bench then said, 'What you are doing is absolute breach of the top court's December 11 order. You have not clarified which remission policy you are following. What you did was very objectionable.

"When it comes to granting remission, all state governments are the same. There is a pattern. All state governments mechanically reject the first application for remission without considering it."

The top court granted two weeks to the government to decide 114 remission pleas including Gafoor's remission plea.

The top court was hearing a plea by Gafoor seeking premature release on the ground that he has served almost 16 years in jail.

According to the prosecution, the special cell of Delhi police had received a tip-off in January 2007 that JeM intended to carry out 'fidayeen' attack at prominent places in the national capital and would be sending its operatives through the Indo-Bangla border.

Based on the tip-off, a trap was laid on February 4, 2007 and after a fierce encounter with police near Connaught Place all the four were arrested and a large quantity of explosives, grenades and cash were recovered from them.