MADURAI
A public interest litigation petition filed before the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Wednesday challenged three Government Orders of the Home (Prison) department, which has surrendered 32 probation officers’ posts in favour of creating new technical posts.
The petitioner, K.R. Raja of Madurai, said the technical posts included that of Inspector (Technical) and Sub-Inspector (Technical) for maintenance and upkeep of modern gadgets provided in the department.
The G.O.s, he claimed, failed to understand the importance of The Probation of Offenders Act, 1958, a Central Act. The duties of the probation officer included providing advice and assistance to the court, maintenance of registers, records, files and reports, periodical visits to supervise probationers, conducting inquiries with regard to pre-mature release of prisoners and grant of financial assistance.
These officers also conducted inquiries on the welfare of prisoners, verification of sureties submitted to the court and of economic status of applicants to government services under compassionate grounds and visits to prisons under their jurisdiction, the petitioner said.
With the surrender of these posts, there would be hindrance to realisation of correctional theories and proper execution of The Probation of Offenders Act, 1958. Though the government had created new posts for better administration of the Prison department, there was no need to surrender the existing posts, he said. He sought a direction to restore the 32 probation officer posts and quash the notification surrendering them.
A Division Bench of Justices M.M. Sundresh and N. Sathish Kumar, hearing the plea, directed notice to the Prison department and adjourned the case for further hearing.
