The Bombay High Court has issued notice to the State Information Commission (SIC) to respond to the plea filed by the AG Perarivalan, a convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, seeking details on the early release of Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt who was a convict in the 1993 Bombay serial bomb blast case.
Perarivalan had approached the Bombay High Court in July last year after he failed to get a proper response from the Maharashtra prison department to queries filed by him under the Right to Information Act.
However, the State Information Commission had then passed an "insufficient and vague" order, as per the petition, following which Perarivalan approached the high court.
"If the information sought for is provided to the petitioner, then it will facilitate the petitioner's own remission process. The petitioner is not concerned about the extraordinariness of the considerations, in any, in the case of Sanjay Dutt by the jail department at each stage of release/remission/parole and furlough," says Perarivalan's petition.
Dutt was convicted by a special court under the Arms Act to six years, which was later upheld by the Supreme Court. However, the sentence was reduced to five years. He surrendered before the Yerawada prison to serve his sentence in 2013.
During the period of his incarceration, Dutt was granted furlough and parole on various occasions and on February 25, 2016, he was released from jail after being granted a good conduct remission of 256 days.