High Court dismisses PIL that challenged Sanjay Dutt’s early sentence

Sanjay Dutt was released on February 2016 after he was asked to complete a five year imprisonment sentence. The actor was released eight months before his completion. This had the police officials reasoning that he was released early due to his exemplary conduct. However a Public Interest Litigation [PIL] was filed against the officials for showing partiality. The PIL was recently in High Court and now reports have it that the court has dismissed the same.

According to the PIL, the police officials were accused of favouring a star by granting him an early release. It also claimed that there were many other inmates who were equally good in their conduct but did not receive the same treatment. However, when the case was heard by the bench Justice SC Dharamadhikari and Justice Bharati Dange, they observed that there has been no violation.

The bench further added that the state government has provided ample documents that prove that no favouritism was shown to the star. According to them, the officials have presented valid documents from the Home Department to back their words. Also, no partiality has been observed in case of providing parole and furloughs.

Readers may be aware that there was quite a bit of outrage when the actor ended up spending 5 months out of jail during his two and half year sentence. The bench retained that they haven’t found any contrary records by far. Further it was also asserted that the documents are a proof that no violation or abuse of discretionary powers was detected.

Furthermore, in order to avoid further allegations on partiality, the court has asked the police authorities to remain transparent in their approach whilst granting paroles and furloughs. According to the bench, the Sanjay Dutt case shouldn’t entice feelings of favouritism in the minds of citizens or the inmates themselves.