The official clarification that those imprisoned under narcotics, explosives and arms acts and for crimes against women and communal violence would not get this remission did not cut ice with critics. And when Subramanian Swamy of the Janata Party filed a PIL against the premature release, Chief Justice of the Madras High Court Justice A K Ganguly in a rare gesture convened a sitting at his residence at night on Sunday. He refused to stay the order as prayed by the petitioner and posted the matter for hearing on October 30, by which time both the state Government and Swamy are to file their counter affidavit and reply, respectively.

The practice of premature release is not new for the state. Anna himself reduced the term of all life convicts by one year when he was the chief minister. The devil that the Opposition sees this time is in the detail.

Firstly, the mammoth figure of over 1,400 convicts rang an alarm among legal experts. Last year, the figure was 190 and that too those who completed at least a decade inside prisons. Critics argue that over and above the humanitarian gesture that it represents, the move to release such a large number of prisoners who had completed only seven years was a hasty one that was targeted to deliver political returns.

The murmur in the civic society gained voice when ally-turned-critics, the Left parties, were antagonised by the release of four prisoners from Madurai Central Prison. These four are DMK cadres, among the six who were awarded life sentence for murdering CPM councillor Leelavathy of Villapuram panchayat in Madurai district in 1997. One died inside prison while serving his sentence.

... contd.