ALLEN SKARIAH THOMAS Vs. CHIEF SECRETARY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioner seeks directions for the grant of ordinary prison leave apart from other consequential directions. Petitioner has also sought to quash rule 407 of the Kerala Prisons and Correctional Services (Management) Rules, 2014 (for short 'the Rules').

(2.) Petitioner was convicted for the offence of patricide and sentenced to undergo life imprisonment by judgement dtd. 8/5/2018 in S.C. No.350 of 2013 on the files of the Additional Sessions Court-IV, Pathanamthitta. He has already undergone more than six years of imprisonment and has not been granted ordinary leave till date. Petitioner claims that though there was no negative conduct on his part during the period he was on pre-trial bail from 12/10/2011 till the date of judgement. He is being denied ordinary leave without any lawful reasons. He alleges that leave has been denied due to certain vested interests and his application for leave is not even being placed before the Advisory Board for consideration. Petitioner further alleges that the District Probation Officer had even recommended the grant of ordinary leave to him, while the police reports are unfavourable without any reason.

(3.) A statement has been filed on behalf of the fifth respondentSuperintendent of Central Prison stating that as on 24/6/2024, petitioner has undergone 6 years, 4 months and 6 days of imprisonment including the remand period. The fifth respondent pleads that under Sec. 78 of Kerala Prisons and Correctional Services (Management) Act, 2010 (for short 'the Act') leave can be granted only to well-behaved, eligible convicted prisoners as incentive for good behaviour and responsiveness to correctional treatment. It is alleged that the petitioner, despite having been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life, has been abstaining from prison jobs arbitrarily without any reasonable excuse. It is further stated that the petitioner engages in prison jobs intermittently according to his own whims and fancies, that too till September 2022 and thereafter he has been completely abstaining from prison jobs in contravention of law and that such abstention itself is a prison offence as per Sec. 82(15) of the Act. It is further alleged that every petition for leave has to be accompanied by a report from the Station House Officer of the police station concerned regarding the repercussions of the law and order situation if the convict is released on leave, especially about his own safety and that of the others and the possibility of any prisoner absconding also has to be reckoned.