NE LEGAL BUREAU
CHENNAI, MAY 28
The Tamil Nadu government on Thursday informed the Madras High Court that Nalini, life convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, cannot be allowed to make a video call to her mother-in-law in Sri Lanka.
The government said there was no provision either in the Tamil Nadu Prison Rules or in the government orders to allow prisoners to make video call or even voice call to any person, and hence the court cannot give this right to Nalini.
The government made the submission before a division bench of Justices MM Sundresh and PT Asha when the habeas corpus petition (HCP) from S Padma, Nalini’s mother, came up. The bench then adjourned the matter to June 1.
The petitioner sought to permit her daughter and her husband Sriharan alias Murugan to make video calls to her mother-in-law in Sri Lanka and sister-in-law in London for at least 10 minutes daily.
A counter affidavit by the DGP/IG (prisons), Tamil Nadu, Sunil Kumar Singh said, ‘There is no provision either in the Tamil Nadu Prison Rules or in government orders to allow a prisoner to make video call or even voice call to any person in any foreign country.’ The official noted that the issue involving foreign countries falls within the domain of Union Ministry for External Affairs, and the Tamil Nadu government or the prison authorities cannot take any unilateral decision.
He further submitted that since the offence committed by the life convicts had international ramification and given their overseas contacts with banned outfits, there is no guarantee that they would use this facility for personal or family affair.
Besides the bar in rules, before a prisoner is allowed to make such calls, the prison authorities must verify the bona fides of the caller on the other end so that the regulations of the department are not jeopardised.
‘In this case, we cannot verify the genuineness of the caller who will speak from a foreign land and we cannot take any action against them even if they violate any regulations,’ the officer added.
When the matter came up, the court observed that though a counter affidavit is said to have been filed, it is not available on file.
‘The public prosecutor submits there is a protocol and procedure to be followed on instructions from the Ministry of External Affairs…and we are not able to know the exact stand of the respondents,’ it said and directed the Registry to put up the counter affidavit.
Besides Nalini, her husband Murugan, A G Perarivalan, Santhan, Jayakumar, Ravichandran and Robert Pyas are serving life imprisonment for their role in the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi on May 21, 1991 by an LTTE suicide-bomber at nearby Sriperumbudur.
They were initially sentenced to death, but later it was commuted to life imprisonment.
