Make remission rules for convicts public: CIC to government

NEW DELHI: Responding to a plea of a life convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, the Central Information Commission (CIC) has directed the Centre to disclose rules for remission of convicts and put all orders granting or denying remission to life convicts in the public domain.

Hearing an appeal by AG Perarivalan, a life convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, Information Commissioner Yashovardhan Azad has asked the ministry of home affairs to give an unambiguous reply to the two-year-old application filed under the RTI Act.

Perarivalan had filed an application under the RTI Act in January 2016 seeking copy of remissions rules framed by the Centre after a 2015 Supreme Court constitutional bench verdict, copy of directives sent to state governments refraining them from granting any remission or release of convicts and copies of all orders of Centre between 2010 and 2015 granting remission to prisoners throughout India.


The home ministry had only told Perarivalan that there were 20 cases of remission between 2010 and 2015, but, no other information was given as the ministry held the view that the matter was sub-judice.

In his 12-page order, Azad has said, “The Commission directs the PIO to furnish an unambiguous reply… The appellant is entitled to know whether any set of rules… were framed by the central government… The Commission hastens to clarify that the right of the appellant to know the rules governing him has no impact on any judicial verdict.

Rather, it is in larger public interest that such rules, if in existence, may be widely circulated.