New Delhi, Aug 21 (PTI) AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sandeep Kumar Pathak Wednesday contended before the Delhi High Court that the prison authority’s decision to deny him a meeting with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in jail was “arbitrary, illegal and completely unjustified”.
The jail authorities had permitted Pathak to meet Kejriwal twice in April but refused to give him permission this time, claiming that certain statements made by him after meeting the chief minister were in contravention of prison rules and mostly politically motivated.
Opposing Pathak’s plea, the jail authorities contended before the court that he deliberately violated the prison consideration and spoke to the media on the deliberations he had with Kejriwal and that the prison administration is not in favour of allowing him the facility of physical “mulakat” with the inmate in view of his past conduct.
After hearing part arguments advanced by the parties, Justice Neena Bansal Krishna listed the matter for further proceedings on Thursday.
As the court sought to know if no one was allowed to meet Kejriwal, senior advocate Rahul Mehra, representing Pathak, said three people were allowed to visit the chief minister and at present, two were meeting him.
The court also asked the jail authorities to place on record the order by which Pathak was stopped from meeting Kejriwal.
Kejriwal is lodged in Tihar jail under judicial custody in the alleged excise policy scam.
Pathak, in his plea, sought a direction to the jail authorities to allow him the right of physical visitation and interview with Kejriwal.
He submitted that he has not been in violation of Rule 587 of the Delhi Prisons Rules as alleged by the authorities.
Rule 587 states that the conversation at the interviews with inmates shall be limited to private and domestic matters and there shall be no reference to the prison administration and discipline and to other prisoners or politics.
Some of the statements the jail authorities claimed Pathak made after visiting Kejriwal are – “Kejriwal is CM and will remain the CM and if needed he will run the government from inside the jail” and “From next week onwards, the CM will call two ministers to jail every week, there he will review their departments and give them guidelines and directions”.
On April 24, just an hour before the meeting, Pathak received an email from the jail authorities stating, “Further, the request of physical mulakat of Sandeep Kumar Pathak has not been considered as he misused the mulakat facility by making statements against prison administration and has issued political statements after his physical interview and such conduct is in violation of Rule 587 of Delhi Prison Rules, 2018 and his Mulakat facility is restricted accordingly.” The jail authorities, in its reply to the petition, said the plea was baseless and malicious and liable to be dismissed.
“The petitioner has violated the rules relating to physical interviews with the inmate and submitted wrong facts in the petition and therefore, he is not entitled for the relief, as prayed,” it said.
Pathak, in his plea, said the purview of Rule 587 is limited to conversations at the interview whereas the jail authorities have denied him permission for a physical meeting for the statements made after the physical interview.
“… therefore holding the conduct of the petitioner in violation of Rule 587 of Delhi Prisons Rules, 2018 is arbitrary, illegal and completely unjustified on the part of respondent no.1 (jail authorities),” it said.
The plea said political speech and political talks form an essential part of democracy and also of the basic structure of the Constitution.
“General talk with political undertones cannot and should not be denied to a person visiting an undertrial prisoner unless they result in violation of any law in force or are expressly barred under Article 19 of the Constitution,” it said. PTI SKV IJT
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