MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court dismissed two public interest litigation petitions seeking direction to declare persons undergoing conviction and sentence under SC/ST Act ineligible for premature release.
The litigants P Rathinam and A Perumal of Madurai submitted that several persons convicted and sentenced under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 were often granted premature release. These persons who have committed brutal murders in the name of community, when allowed to roam freely even after conviction, perturb the witnesses and victims and keep them under constant fear and oppression, they stated.
Rathinam also recalled how persons who were undergoing life imprisonment in the Melavalavu massacre case, in which six Dalits were brutally murdered by a mob of caste Hindus in 1997, were released prematurely citing centenary celebrations of former chief minister CN Annadurai in 2008.
Pointing out an order issued by the Tamil Nadu government declaring persons convicted for terrorism, offences against State, sedition, rape, robbery and dacoity were ineligible for seeking premature release, they sought direction to the government to declare convicts under SC/ST Act also ineligible for premature release.
However, a bench comprising Justices N Kirubakaran and S S Sundar dismissed the petition.