S.Kanimozhi vs Secretary To Government And Others

K.K.Ramakrishnan, J

The present writ petition has been filed seeking a mandamus to direct the respondents 1 to 4 to release the petitioner's brother namely, Sudharsan @ Vellaiyan (CP No.1746), son of Sivakumar aged about 23 years, confining at Madurai Central Prison on parole for the period of 7 days for enabling the petitioner's brother by name Sudharsan @ Vellaiyan to perform his mother, Maheshwari's final rituals.

The learned counsel appearing for the petitioner would submit that the petitioner's brother, namely, Sudharsan @ Vellaiyan is convicted by the I Additional Special Court for NDPS Act Cases, Madurai in C.C.No.319 of 2021 dated 24.04.2023 for the offences under Section 8(c) r/w 20(b)(ii)(c) of the NDPS Act and sentenced to undergo 10 years rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs.1,00,000/-(Rupees One Lakh only) in default to undergo one year simple imprisonment, for which, he did not prefer any appeal and now, he is confined in the 4th respondent prison.

The learned counsel appearing for the petitioner would further submit that on 28.07.2023 at 04.30 p.m., the petitioner's mother died in a road accident. Hence, the petitioner made a request to the fourth respondent to grant emergency leave for his brother, who is a convict, to attend the funeral rituals of mother. Since the same was not considered by the fourth respondent, the petitioner filed this writ petition to grant emergency leave for his brother.

The learned Additional Public Prosecutor, on instructions, would submit that the fourth respondent has not considered the request of the petitioner for the reason that the convict has previous cases and he also confirmed the death of the convict's mother.

This Court considered the rival submissions of the learned counsel appearing for the petitioner as well as the learned Additional Public Prosecutor appearing for the respondents.

As per Rules 6, 13 & 35 of the Tamil Nadu Suspension of Sentence Rules, 1982 (hereinafter referred to as “Rules” for brevity), the fourth respondent is duty bound to consider the request of the petitioner to grant emergency leave to a convict to attend the funeral rituals of his mother. Even in the case of the convict, who has already exercised his right of getting maximum period of 15 days, as per the proviso to Rule 13 of the Rules, the fourth respondent is duty bound to grantone day emergency leave to the convict to attend the funeral rituals of his mother.

In the aforesaid circumstances, this Court is unable to accept the attitude of the fourth respondent in not considering the emergency leave plea of the petitioner to attend the funeral rituals of the convict's mother. So, this Court issues a direction to the fourth respondent to appear before this Court on 01.08.2023 and explain as to why he has not discharged his statutory duty as per the provisions of the aforesaid Rules and driven the petitioner to approach this Court.

Considering the aforesaid Rule position and the affirmative submission of the learned Additional Public Prosecutor in regard to death of the convict's mother, this Court is inclined to grant emergency leave from 29.07.2023 at 06.00 p.m, to 30.07.2023 at 06.00 p.m., with escort. The Commissioner of Police, Madurai City, is directed to provide escort forthwith.

Post the matter on 01.08.2023.