The Madras High Court has directed the State government to release two murder case life convicts before March 7.
If it was not so done before the deadline, the same would be treated as contempt of court, a division bench of Justices S Rajeswaran and PN Prakash warned, while passing further interim orders on two habeas corpus writ petitions.
The matter pertained to life convicts Deva @ Devaraj undergoing life imprisonment in Puzhal and Rajendran in Coimbatore Central Jail. They were ordered to be released prematurely by the High Court on January 22 last. But this order was not implemented by the Government till date. Hence, present HCPs were filed again by relatives of the prisoners.