Proving once again that it would not stand on technicalities when it comes to providing relief to litigants, the Madras High Court Bench here on Thursday treated a criminal original petition as a writ petition and permitted a prisoner to attend his mother’s funeral.
Disposing of a petition filed by S. Rajapandi, brother of prisoner S. Palpandi, Justice P.N. Prakash pointed out that a petition could not be filed under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure seeking a direction to the Superintendent of Prison to grant emergency leave.
Nevertheless, since the petitioner’s counsel R. Venkatesan pointed out that the prisoner’s mother died on Thursday and the funeral was to take place on the same day, the judge treated the criminal petition as a writ petition and ordered his release from the Central Prison here immediately.
He also directed the Superintendent to permit the petitioner’s brother to attend the funeral under police escort at the expense of the State and bring him back to the prison by Saturday evening.
