New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday admonished a senior official of the Uttar Pradesh government for filing 'false' affidavits in the court saying it will not tolerate an IAS officer "lying" on face of the court and changing stands according to convenience.
A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Augustine George Masih pulled up Rajesh Kumar Singh, principal secretary of Uttar Pradesh Prison Administration Department, for filling the false affidavit after Additional Advocate General Garima Prasad, appearing for the state government, said that he did not understand the earlier order of the court.
"We will not tolerate an IAS officer lying to this court and changing the stands as per the convenience," the bench told Prasad.
It noted that the stand taken on oath in the affidavit affirmed on August 14 by Singh, is completely different from the solemn statements made by the same officer which were recorded in this court's order of August 12.
"In fact, some of the statements made in the affidavit including the statement made in clause (g) of paragraph 5 of the affidavit appear to be false," the bench observed. Singh on August 12 submitted that it was Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister's office which delayed the processing of file related to remission of a convict due to the Model Code of Conduct imposed in the state on account of recently concluded Lok Sabha elections.
Asking the state government to take action against the officer, the bench said, "Some officers must go to jail, otherwise this conduct will not stop. We are not going to spare him or the state must take action against him." Singh said that he inadvertently said that the Chief Minister's secretariat did not accept the files related to remission due to the Model Code of Conduct.
The bench told Singh that it does not believe his submission as "You are not an illiterate person that you could not understand what the court said. You are a senior officer of the state government." The bench took the affidavit of Singh on record and said the court will go deep into the matter and pass an order on September 9.
On August 20, Singh filed an affidavit before the court and took a contradictory stand as opposed to the stand on August 12 on movement of files related to remission. The bench had granted temporary bail to the convict and directed Singh to appear before the court on August 27 while noting the contradictory stand in the affidavit.
On August 12, warning contempt action against officers in the office of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the top court sought to know the names of those officials who had refused to accept files of remission pleas of convicted prisoners due to enforcement of model code of conduct.
Remission is the cancellation or reduction of a part of the prison sentence of a prisoner. Under section 432 of the CrPC, state governments may remit the whole or part of the punishment to which a convict has been sentenced based on factors such as the prisoner's conduct, rehabilitation, health and time served in the prison.
The bench had expressed its displeasure over the state government not processing files related to remission pleas within the specified time frame despite its order of May 13.
It had directed Singh to give the details on an affidavit and the names of officers who had refused to accept the files related to remission.
The bench had observed that as far as the state of Uttar Pradesh is concerned, "we have repeatedly noticed that the orders of this court directing consideration of premature release are not being implemented within the time fixed by this Court". The bench rapped the Uttar Pradesh government for not complying with its order and had said, "We want to correct this system."
On May 13, the top court had issued a direction to the state government to consider the case of convict Ashok for grant of permanent remission by observing that the Model Code of Conduct does not come in the way of the authorities.
