Either he is guilty or under pressure to lie: Supreme Court grills UP Prisons official

The Supreme Court on Tuesday grilled the Principal Secretary of the Uttar Pradesh Prison Administration and Reforms Department over contradictory explanations given for the delay in processing a convict's plea for remission [Ashok v. State of Uttar Pradesh and Another]..A Division Bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Augustine George Masih had already noted on August 20 that the explanation given by the official in an affidavit contradicted his earlier oral submissions in Court. When the matter was taken up yesterday, a visibly upset Justice Oka criticised the Principal Secretary, who was personally present in the court ."He (Principal Secretary) is not illiterate, but either pressured to take a contrary stand or guilty. Completely lied in one affidavit. We will take this to logical conclusion. We will not spare him if government doesn't take action. He has to come clean. You cannot pick and choose remission for some and not others. We will get into the truth of the matter now," Justice Oka remarked..The Court made it clear that it is not going to tolerate contradictory stances by administrative officers due to external pressure."We will not tolerate IAS officers changing stance due to pressure of political masters. We cannot believe you were not briefed properly," Justice Oka said.The judge added that convicts seeking remission suffer because of such delays.The Court proceeded to grant the Principal Secretary another opportunity to file a fresh affidavit and explain the situation. "We will examine the fresh affidavit filed by Principal Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh, and hear the case next on September 9," the Court ordered..The Court was hearing a convict's plea for the remission (early release from prison) of his prison sentence. The Court recently ordered the convict's release on temporary bail, after taking note of significant delays by the State authorities in processing his remission file. On August 20, the Bench recounted that the Principal Secretary had initially (on August 12) submitted in court that the Chief Minister's Secretariat delayed the processing of the remission file because a Model Code of Conduct (MCC) was in force.However, the Principal Secretary's affidavit (filed later on the Court's orders) and the timeline of events stated in it revealed that this did not appear to be the reason for the delay. The Bench noted that the file in focus did not move even after May 13 when the Court had called for the file to be processed in a time-bound manner (within 1 month). The file remained unmoved till June 6 (when the Model Code of Conduct ended), the Court observed. Notably, delays were noted even after this date and the file was sent to the Chief Minister's office only on August 5, the Court found.The Bench expressed displeasure over the failure to adhere to the Court-ordered deadline and the State official's contradictory submissions. It also warned the principal secretary of criminal contempt proceedings..Delay in processing remission plea: Supreme Court pulls up UP Prisons official for false statement.Senior Advocate Purvish Jitender Malkan, advocates CK Rai, Arvind Kumar Tiwari, Manish Kumar, Aqsa, Mohan Lal, Anuradha Roy and Vinay Kumar Gupta, appeared for the convict, Ashok.Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj represented the Central government while Additional Advocate General (AAG) Sharan Thakur, Senior AAGs Garima Prasad and Sakshi Kakkar and advocate Anchit Singla, appeared for the State of Uttar Pradesh..[Read Live Coverage].Follow Bar and Bench channel on WhatsAppDownload the Bar and Bench Mobile app for instant access to the latest legal news.