Chennai: S.Nalini, serving life sentence in Vellore prison for her involvement in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case and who was granted ordinary leave for 30 days to make arrangements for her daughter's marriage, has approached the Madras high court to grant extension of ordinary leave for a period of 30 days from August 25, 2019, to September 25, 2019.
A division bench comprising Justices M.M.Sundresh and M.Nirmal Kumar before whom, the petition filed by Nalini came up for hearing ordered notice to the state government, Deputy Inspector General of Prisons and Superintendent of Prison, Special Prison for Women, Vellore and posted to August 22, further hearing of the case.
In her petition, Nalini submitted that she has already undergone imprisonment for more than 28 years. By an order of this court dated July 5, 2019, she was granted ordinary leave for 30 days and she was released from prison on July 25. She was granted leave for the purpose of arranging her daughter's marriage. The leave was about to expire on August 25 and she was supposed to return to prison on August 25 before 5 pm, she added.
She said during her stay on leave, she had tried her best to arrange her daughter's marriage but could not complete the arrangements until now. She was hopeful that she would be in a position to celebrate her daughter's marriage within a month. She made a representation dated August 6 to the prison authorities asking for extension of ordinary leave for a period of one month. In her representation, she had expressed her difficulties in arranging her daughter's marriage within a short time of 30 days. It may be noted that she had initially asked for six months ordinary leave for the purpose of making arrangements for her daughter's marriage. Her daughter was a citizen of UK and she was residing in London with her husband's brother. Her daughter and her relatives who were residing in London and Sri Lanka were likely to visit India in the first week of September 2019. After their arrival, she needs quite some time to make arrangements for her daughter's marriage. The Superintendent of Prisons, Vellore by an order dated August 13, rejected her plea on the ground that extension of ordinary leave beyond 30 days would not be permissible under the relevant Rules. Hence, she has filed the present petition, she added.
