The High Court said that the State was bound to compensate a citizen for any illegal detention and breach of fundamental rights.
The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court recently directed the Tamil Nadu government to pay ₹3.5 lakh as compensation for illegal detection.
In the case of Rathinam v. The State, a man was illegally kept in prison for nine months for the acquisition for murder.
In an order passed on January 12, Justice Sundar Mohan directed that the compensation be paid to the prisoner, Chokkar, within four weeks.
A petition was filed by the prisoner’s father, claimed for the compensation for the duration spent by his son, in jail. In his petition, he even ointed over the proper implementation of corrective measures in order to avoid such delays in the future.
The high court decided to order of release to both Chokkar and Mayilraj, who were arrested in a murder case in 2012.
In 2017, Mayilraj challenged his conviction and sentence before the Madras High Court, which acquitted him on October 31, 2019, whereas Chokkar without making any appeal for his release, still languishing in the prison.
They both were charged under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). That same year, both men were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by a local court.
The petitioner, in his plea, told the High Court about unacquaintance of the Court’s acquittal order and same was informed by his lawyer.
The petitioner’s Advocate Henri Tiphagne told the Court about the subsequent representation to the prison authorities following which he was released on July 14, 2020.
Therefore, the nine-month period between October 2019 and July 2020, when he was finally released, amounted to illegal confinement, Tiphagne said.
The prison authorities tried to clear their name and, therefore, specified about the same. However, Justice Mohan, refused their excuse. They said that the High Court’s acquittal order had not referred to Chokkar by his name, but had merely called him as “A2 (accused number 2).” Therefore, they had been unable to identify and release him.
Justice mohan cited that:
“It is seen that this Court, while acquitting A1, Mayilraj, had specifically directed the release of A2 in the case. The respondents cannot say that they did not release the petitioner’s son as he was only referred to A2 and no name was mentioned. The direction issued by this Court has been extracted in the earlier part of this order. When such a specific direction has been issued by this Court, it is the bounden duty of the prison officials to verify as to who is A2 and in any event, if they had any doubt, they ought to have obtained clarification from this Court, immediately. Therefore, that cannot be an excuse for not releasing the petitioner’s son pursuant to the direction issued by this Court on 31.10.2019. Therefore, this Court has no hesitation to hold that the detention of the petitioner’s son from 31.10.2019 to 14.07.2020 is illegal,” the order said.
The State government after seeing the situation, accepted prison authorities negligence and agreed to pay any compensation as per the court decision.
Additional Public Prosecutor R Meenakshi Sundaram also informed the Court that disciplinary action had been taken against the concerned prison officials, including the then Superintendent of the Madurai Central Prison.
The Court ordered Chokkar, a compensation of ₹3.5 lakh for his illegal detention in prison between October 2019 and July 2020.
The Court also directed the State to implement the Supreme Court’s directions in Sonadhar v. State of Chhatisgarh on making prisoners aware of their rights, providing legal aid etc.
It further directed the Tamil Nadu government to provide within four months the option of Tamil language in the kiosk machines in State prisons that provide case status and related information to inmates.
BY: AYUSHI BHUSHAN, 1st YEAR, BA.LLB(INTEGRATED), BANASTHALI UNIVERSITY, RAJASTHAN
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