Remission Plea Case: SC Slams Delhi Govt

New Delhi: The Delhi govt once agains had to face the Supreme Court's ire for changing its stand on deciding the remission plea of a convict and made it clear on Tuesday that it would no longer take lenient view and could initiate criminal contempt proceedings.
A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan noted that the govt had, on March 28, stated that the Sentence Review Board had not made a final decision on the remission plea and that the decision had been deferred. However, the govt is now asserting that the phrase "defer the decision" was a recommendation on the basis of which the remission plea was rejected.
"It's criminal contempt. Now any statement made by govt in court would not be accepted if not backed by an affidavit. It was done deliberately. The affidavit is very objectionable... Your officer had said that decision was deferred. Can it be considered as a recommendation now?" the bench asked.
The court said that it would ask the counsel, who appeared at the last hearing for the govt, to come before it and tell the court about the instruction given to him by the govt.
Sensing the mood of the court, Delhi govt counsel sought two days' time to clear the confusion. Allowing his plea, the court. however, directed that the govt officer who filed the affidavit, to appear before it.
The court had, in the last hearing, had noted in its order that: "An affidavit has been filed by the principal secretary of the home department of the Govt of NCT Delhi. Now, he wants to say that what was placed before the Lieutenant Governor was not the recommendation but a decision of the Sentence Review Board to postpone the consideration. This shows that on Feb 7, 2025, a false and misleading statement was made before this court which is sought to be justified by filing an affidavit. Perhaps only because we have issued contempt notice, hurriedly, a recommendation has been made to reject the proposal for premature release of the petitioner. We permit the secretary to file a fresh affidavit within two weeks from today."