L. WASIB KHAN Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) A short, but, very interesting legal conundrum has been raised by Mr.Mohamed Saifullah in this case, to appreciate which, we need to state the minimum facts.

(2.) Wasib Khan, the petitioner herein, was convicted on 21/11/2019 by the I Additional Special Court for NDPS Act Cases, Chennai, of the offences under Ss. 8(c) read with Ss. 22(c) and 8(c) read with Sec. 29 and 8(c) read with Ss. 27-A and 8(c) read with Sec. 23(c) read with Sec. 28 of the NDPS Act for possession of commercial quantity of Alprazolam tablets and was sentenced to undergo 10 years rigorous imprisonment for each of the offences, but, the sentences were ordered to run concurrently, together with the benefit of set off under Sec. 428 Cr.P.C. Challenging the aforesaid conviction and sentences, Wasib Khan has filed Crl.A.125 of 2020 and the same is under consideration by this Court.

(3.) While so, a representation dtd. 10/1/2021 was given by Wasib Khan's mother Ramzan Beevi Yakit Ali seeking one month ordinary leave for the former. Since no order was passed on the said representation by the Prison authorities, a writ petition being W.P. No.4574 of 2021 was filed by Wasib Khan which was disposed of on 10/3/2021 directing the Prison authorities to dispose of the representation dtd. 10/1/2021 within a period often days, in accordance with the Tamil Nadu Suspension of Sentence Rules, 1982 (for brevity "the Sentence Suspension Rules"), pursuant to which, the said representation was considered and rejected by the Superintendent, Central Prison-I, Puzhal, vide the impugned order dtd. 23/3/2021, aggrieved by which, the present writ petition has been filed by Wasib Khan, besides seeking a direction to the second respondent to grant 30 days leave to him without escort.