Chennai: Prisoner seeks parole to canvas for polls

Chennai: The Madras high court has directed the state home secretary to pass orders by Saturday (May 14) on a representation, which sought to grant parole to a prisoner, whose nomination was accepted as an independent candidate in Tiruvottriyur Assembly constituency here, to enable him to do campaigning.

Justice V. Bharathidasan gave the directive while disposing of a petition from A.Chitra, sister of the prisoner C. Dhanasekar. The petitioner said her brother had been detained under Goondas Act and lodged in Central Prison at Puzhal. On April 28, he filed his nomination to contest in the Assembly elections from Tiruvottriyur constituency. His nomination was accepted  and he was allotted 'Diamond’ symbol. Since his nomination was accepted, he had every right to campaign in the election.

A representation was sent to the authorities to grant him parole enabling him to appoint booth agents and also tour the constituency. Since his representation was not considered, she filed the present petition.

Additional public prosecutor M. Maharaja submitted that Dhanasekar had been detained under Goondas Act. Several criminal cases were pending against him. He was a notorious criminal and if parole was granted, peace and tranquility in the constituency will be affected.

Niranjan Rajagopalan, counsel for Election Commission, submitted that contesting in elections was only a statutory right and under section 62 (5) of  Representation of the People Act, a person confined in prison, whether under a sentence of imprisonment or in a lawful custody of the police, has no right to vote. However, an exception was given to persons subjected to preventive detention. Apart from that under section 60 (d) of the Act, any person subjected to preventive detention has a right to cast his vote by postal ballot. Further, there was no other statutory right conferred on the detenu like the petitioner’s brother, he added.

The judge said, “Without going into the merits of the case, since the petitioner made a representation to the authority seeking parole for Dhanasekar and the same was pending, the authority concerned should consider the representation and pass suitable orders on merits and in accordance with law”.