The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to pass any urgent directions on a petition challenging the release of 1,405 prisoners, including 22 women, by the Tamil Nadu Government on the occasion of the birthday of former chief minister C N Annadurai.Refusing to grant an urgent hearing, the Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan said it will hear the matter in due course. The matter has been scheduled for hearing on October 13.The PIL filed by four advocates — N Rajaraman, K Satish Galla, K K S Krishnaraj and V Senthil Kumar — alleged that the Government order relating to the release of prisoners was mainly to facilitate the release of partymen of the ruling dispensation by either misusing the power or by using the political will of the ruling party to get the sanction of the Governor, completely contravening the law.“The Act (to release prisoners) was illegal and arbitrary and the Government had not taken necessary steps to obtain reports from the jail authorities about the convicts,” the petition stated.It alleged that the state Government had not placed the relevant material before the Governor who granted the permission to release the convicts serving various terms of punishment.The Tamil Nadu Government had released those prisoners who have either completed seven years of their jail term as on September 15 or are above 60 years of age and have completed five years in prison.The joint petition contended that the exercise of the power under Article 161 of the Constitution by the Governor was tainted with political favouritism and lack of bonafide reasons.This was more so as the apex court on August 7, 2007 had restrained the Andhra Pradesh Government from releasing 1,500 prisoners in a similar way.
