NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to list on May 8 a petition filed by Uma Krishnaiah, wife of slain IAS officer G Krishnaiah, which challenged the Bihar government’s decision to release Anand Mohan who was sentenced to life for instigating the killing of the then Gopalganj district magistrate in 1994.
The petition, filed on Saturday by Uma Krishnaiah, was mentioned by her lawyer Tanya Shree before a bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and justice JB Pardiwala for urgent listing. The bench agreed to hear the case next Monday.
Gopalganj district magistrate G Krishnaiah was killed in December 1994.
Anand Mohan, then a member of the legislative assembly (MLA), was convicted for instigating the murder for which he was awarded the death sentence by a trial court in 2007. Anand Mohan’s death sentence was reduced to life imprisonment by the Patna high court in 2008. He challenged the verdict in the Supreme Court, but didn’t get a relief.
Mohan walked out of prison on April 27 after the Bihar government tweaked the Bihar Prison Manual on April 10 allowing life convicts involved in the murder of a public servant to be eligible for premature release after serving a sentence of 14 years.
Uma Krishnaiah’s petition challenged the April 10 amendment that paved the way for Mohan’s release and argued that the state government could not mechanically release any person at the end of 14 years. It also cited decisions of the top court to argue that the state had to consider remission of life convicts based on the policy that existed at the time of conviction. At the relevant time when Mohan was convicted, the December 2002 remission policy was in vogue under which convicts punished for killing a public servant on duty were eligible for remission after undergoing 20 years sentence including remission.
{{/usCountry}}Uma Krishnaiah’s petition challenged the April 10 amendment that paved the way for Mohan’s release and argued that the state government could not mechanically release any person at the end of 14 years. It also cited decisions of the top court to argue that the state had to consider remission of life convicts based on the policy that existed at the time of conviction. At the relevant time when Mohan was convicted, the December 2002 remission policy was in vogue under which convicts punished for killing a public servant on duty were eligible for remission after undergoing 20 years sentence including remission.
{{/usCountry}}Bihar’s home department on April 10 amended Rule 481(1)(c) of the Bihar Prison Manual, 2012 which regulates the exercise of remission power by the state under Section 433A (relating to the state’s remission policy) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and removed the 20-year prison requirement for the category of offence under which Anand Mohan was punished.
The petition also cited top court decisions that require the state to consider the prisoner’s conduct in jail, past criminal antecedents, socio-economic conditions, larger public good, propensity to commit future crimes before grant of release.
The petition reasoned that Anand Mohan’s release was ordered on extraneous considerations and that he had several criminal cases pending against him which would weigh against his premature release