The Hindu: New Delhi: Saturday,
January 28, 2017.
The Delhi
High Court has stayed the order of the Central Information Commission (CIC)
directing the Tihar jail authorities and the Delhi government to compensate a
convict who was incarcerated beyond his period of sentence.
Justice
Sanjeev Sachdeva stayed the July 25, 2016 order of the CIC by which the State
was told to pay suitable compensation and cost of Rs.1,000 to one O. P. Gandhi
for detaining him in prison for 18 extra days.
‘Declare
policy on matter’
The CIC had
also directed the Delhi government and the jail authorities to declare their
policy in the form of a citizen charter under the Right to Information Act regarding
the system of compensating inmates who have been incarcerated beyond their
period of sentence.
Jurisdiction
issue
Challenging
the CIC order in the High Court, the Delhi government said that the commission
could not ask the State to declare such a policy.
The Delhi
government’s counsel Satyakam said that the CIC had heard the matter as if it
was deciding a writ petition and it could not have passed such an order, which
is outside the scope of the Right to Information Act.
In the
instant case, Gandhi was arrested in a case of dishonour of cheque on November
23, 2010. He was granted bail after a month. After a trial, which went on for
three months, he was convicted on November 26, 2013 and sentenced to one-year
simple imprisonment. Gandhi was to be released on October 24, 2014 but earned
remission of 83 days, which brought the release date to August 2, 2014, but he
was not released.
Gandhi then
filed 36 RTIs concerning his illegal detention and the time within which he
would get compensation. The Tihar jail authorities replied that the information
sought is not covered under the RTI Act.
.JPG)
.JPG)
