1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION CRIMINAL WRIT PETITION NO. 2391 OF 2008 Vishwajit Shankar Khavanekar. ..... ..... Petitioner. Versus The State of Maharasthra & Ors. ..... ..... Respondents. Mr. M. J. Jamdar for the Petitioner. Mr. P. S. Hingorani, APP for the Respondents. Mr. Rajnish Seth, Dy. Inspector General (Prison) of Byculla Prison – present. CORAM : BILAL NAZKI and ANOOP V. MOHTA, JJ. DATED : 21ST JANUARY, 2009. P.C.: Heard learned Counsel for the petitioner as well as the learned Public Prosecutor. 2. The petitioner had filed a writ petition seeking director for his release as he had completed the term of imprisonment in accordance with the guidelines. The petitioner has already been released, but the Court has enhanced the scope of this writ petition by order dated 19th December, 2008. In response to that an affidavit has been filed with which this Court was not satisfied and we passed detailed order on 19th January, 2009. 3. Today, we have heard Shri Rajnish Seth, Deputy Inspector General 2 (Prison), Byculla Prison, Mumbai. He has provided us a charge, which shows that in all there are 265 prisoners, who have completed 12 years of imprisonment and who in terms of the guidelines are entitled to be released on completion of 14 years. Out of this list of 265 persons, according to the Deputy Inspector General, only 7 persons, which are shown in the list at serial Nos. 16, 81, 138, 148, 149, 166 and 248 have already completed 14 years in terms of the guidelines. We have seen from the chart presented before us that one of the prisoner, who is mentioned at serial No. 148 – Aadam Gafar Shaikh has completed 15 years 10 months and 12 days as on 31st December, 2008. In effect, he has been in wrongful confinement of the period of almost two years. Such a position cannot be accepted. Therefore, we direct that these persons, who according to the respondents have completed 14 years of imprisonment and who in terms of guidelines are entitled to be released on completion of 14 years, be released forthwith. 4. We also direct that the Government should make arrangement to scrutinise the case of the prisoner well before the date of their due release and no prisoner should remain in the prison even for a single day beyond the period of imprisonment as permissible under the law. Obviously, certain mistakes have been committed, as in the case of 7 persons whose release we are ordering now and one person whose name we have mentioned 3 hereinabove – Aadam Gafar Shaikh, who was kept in custody beyond the permission period for about two years. There are various agencies working on this and we understand that the ultimate decision is taken by the Government. Therefore, we direct the Chief Secretary to order an inquiry into the matter to fix responsibility and take appropriate action against the Officers who were responsible for not processing the files in time, which resulted in delay in release of the petitioner and also set up the measure which will ensure that in future no prisoner remain in custody even for a day beyond permission period of detention. 5. With the above directions, the writ petition is disposed of. Sd/- (BILAL NAZKI, J.) Sd/- (ANOOP V. MOHTA, J.)