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Bhai Hawara and
Bhai Balwant challenge solitary confinement
WSN Network
Chandigarh: Bhai Jagtar Singh Hawara and Bhai Balwant Singh,
sentenced to death for the assassination of former Punjab chief
minister Beant Singh, have challenged their solitary confinement.
They have sought directions from the Punjab and Haryana high court
to declare their confinement as illegal.
Both of them on
Monday filed a habeas corpus petition. Notably, their segregation
from other prisoners is against the verdict of the Supreme court
given in the case of Sunil Batra versus Delhi administration, 1978.
Such detention is also ultra vires of Article 21 of the
constitution.
Bhai Balwant and
Bhai Hawara were awarded the death sentence on July 27, 2007, by
Ravi Kumar Sondhi, additional district and sessions judge-cum
special CBI judge, Chandigarh. While Bhai Hawara and some other
accused have filed an appeal in the high court against their
conviction and sentence, Bhai Balwant has opted to go undefended as
in the trial court. The appellants have pointed out that they were
in solitary confinement since the date of conviction and sentence.
The petitioners have
also submitted that they are taken out just for half-an-hour every
morning and evening, that too separately, and are totally cut-off
from other prisoners.
Bhai Hawara and Bhai
Balwant have also complained of not being allowed reasonable
indulgence in matters of interviews with relatives, friends, legal
advisors etc.
They have alleged
that the jail authorities were not even allowing the visits of
religious ministers as provided in para 771 of the Punjab Jail
Manual 1996, which grants a right to any prisoner facing death
penalty to avail himself of such facilities.
3
October, 2007
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