The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought response from the city government on a plea claiming that meetings of the Sentence Review Board (SRB) are not being held every quarter despite judicial orders to do so.
Justice A.K. Chawla asked the Delhi government’s Home Department, the SRB and the prison authority here to submit status report on the petition, which has sought contempt action against them for alleged non-compliance of High Court’s direction to hold the board’s meetings as per the Delhi Prison Rules.
Advocate Amit Sahni, also a social activist, has claimed in his plea that according to the Delhi Prison Rules of 2018, the SRB meetings have to be held every quarter. Mr. Sahni argued that the High Court on October 21 last year had directed that SRB meetings be held in accordance with the prison rules.
He said that since the October order, not a single meeting has been held yet and it amounts to “wilful disobedience” of judicial orders and sought contempt of court action against the officials concerned, including AAP MLA Satyendar Kumar Jain, the chairman of the SRB.
Mr. Sahni also claimed that the SRB chairperson has the power to hold meetings more frequently than just every quarter, but that Mr. Jain was not doing so. The High Court has posted the case for further hearing on May 5.
