Governor to be ‘consulted’ on release of prisoners

Bengaluru: The Siddaramaiah government may have amended guidelines on premature release of prisoners to keep the Governor from having the final say in the matter, but it does not intend to ignore him altogether and would “consult” him when releasing prisoners shortly, law and parliamentary affairs minister, T B Jayachandra told  reporters here on Monday.

The Governor has long been a thorn in the government’s side as Raj Bhavan has refused to allow premature release of prisoners since 2006 in the absence of  proper guidelines. Seeing the last BJP government at loggerheads with former Governor H R Bhardwaj on the issue, the present government amended the guidelines to remove the portion that gave the Governor a veto in the matter. With the ball firmly in its court, it is now doing the courteous thing and “consulting” Governor Vajubai Vala.

Asserting there was no confrontation between the Raj Bhavan and legislature on the issue, Mr Jayachandra claimed the government had never intended to curtail the Governor's powers. “ The law allows  release of prisoners by the government under section 432 and our legal advisers felt  it would simplify the process if we amended the guidelines. I have spoken to the Governor about the issue and he has agreed to allow release of prisoners,'' he said, adding that a fresh list of prisoners would be prepared for release among life convicts who had  served over 10 years in prison on the basis of their good behaviour.

Moving to other issues, the minister said the govenrment had begun a drive to recover land from encroachers as recommended by Mr A T Ramaswamy Committee. 'There are some hurdles like staff shortage and technical problems. So we are strengthening our administration,''he added. While the Union home ministry had suggested the CBI special court should be empowered to deal with  land grabbing cases as well, the state government had approached the President to set up a special court for trying these cases, he revealed.

• The Siddaramaiah government may have amended guidelines on premature release of prisoners to keep the Governor from having the final say in the matter, but it does not intend to ignore him altogether and would “consult” him when releasing prisoners shortly, law and parliamentary affairs minister, T B Jayachandra told  reporters here on Monday
• The Governor has long been a thorn in the government’s side as Raj Bhavan has  refused to allow premature release of prisoners since 2006 in the absence of  proper guidelines
• Seeing the last BJP government  at loggerheads with former Governor H.R. Bhardwaj on the issue, the present government amended the guidelines to  remove the portion that  gave the  Governor a veto in the matter. With the ball  firmly in its court,  it is now doing the courteous thing and “consulting” Governor Vajubai Vala