The joy of 11 under-trial prisoners knew no bounds when they were set at liberty within a couple of seconds after replying a few queries by the Judicial Officers at the Special Lok Adalat organised by the Tiruchi District Legal Services Authority at the Central Prison here on Wednesday. Many of them had been detained for a period ranging between 7 days to 45 days.
They all were involved in cases of petty offences such as causing public nuisance; minor injuries in road accidents; petty theft of property of value not exceeding Rs.2,000.
S. Thangakani, Principal District and Sessions Judge also Chairman of the Authority and Irusan Poonkuzhali, Judicial Magistrate II, initially enquired each prisoner about the confession of the petty offence. Considering the period of detention at the Central Prison as the term of sentence, they set them free.
Mr. Thangakani cautioned the accused that they should not resort to committing any offence in future.
The Special Lok Adalat, organised for the first time since the directive from the Supreme Court, will be held every month, Mr. M. Gomathinayagam, Secretary of the Authority, said. A total of 60 under-trial prisoners of Tiruchi city and district had confessed their offences.
S. Ramaiyan, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police, spoke on the success of the Prison Adalat. He also assured of maximum cooperation for the success of the Adalat.
Plan to extension for other district prisoners
The Adalat also helped the judicial officers to work on a strategy for extending the benefits to the prisoners of other districts, lodged in Tiruchi.
Initiating a discussion, A. Murugesan, Superintendent of Prisons, underlined the need for extending the benefits of the Adalat to the prisoners of seven other districts – Karur, Perambalur, Ariyalur, Pudukottai, Nagapattinam, Tiruvarur and Thanjavur as many as 357 prisoners from these districts besides Tiruchi were lodged at the Central Prison.
The Chairman and Secretary of the Authority said that steps would be taken to extend the benefit of the Adalat to the prisoners of other districts.
M. Karl Victor Veerasamy and J.K. Jayabal, president and secretary of the Tiruchi Bar Association, sought that the objectives of the Adalat would achieve its desired goals with the cooperation of the police department. They specifically suggested the police personnel to ensure expeditious framing of charge-sheets for petty offences, facilitating the Adalat to release more number of prisoners.
