New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday came down heavily on the Uttar Pradesh government over non compliance with the top court’s orders, the Hindustan Times reported.
The court said UP government officials have “scant respect” for orders while condemning the year-long delay in deciding the matter of remission for convicts serving life imprisonment, the report said.
“Nobody is above the law,” a bench led by Justice Surya Kant remarked when the state government expressed concerns over binding the governor – the constitutional authority required to take the final decision after the state’s recommendations on remission pleas – to a court-mandated deadline.
“Whosoever it may be, nobody is above the law. There are people who have been languishing for almost 30 years. Our direction was passed in May 2022 to decide applications of the petitioners before us within three months,” the bench, which also included Justice Dipankar Datta, told the state’s additional advocate general, Ardhendumauli Kumar Prasad, according to the Hindustan Times report.
The court also directed the state home department’s principal secretary to remain present in the court on August 29 if the authorities fail to dispose of all pending applications within four weeks.
The court was livid that the UP government was yet to act on its direction, given on May 16, 2022, asking the authorities to take a final call within three months. In its May 2022 order, the court had taken note of the fact that all the petitioners, lodged in Bareilly’s Central Jail, had completed more than 14 years of their actual sentence without remission.
The bench had also noted that the state’s remission policy along with several directives passed by the apex court obligate the state government to dispose off a prisoners remission plea within three months of it becoming eligible.
“The amount of disrespect your authorities are showing, we think we will have to take some harsh steps. Your officers have scant respect for the orders of the court. That’s what is happening in your state,” the bench commented.
Of the 42 convicts who had approached the top court last year, several were released or acquitted by the Allahabad high court pending decisions on their remission pleas, and at least seven such applications for premature release were still pending before a government authority in Uttar Pradesh, the report said.