26 February,2014 07:19 AM IST | | A Correspondent
Bollywood actor's lawyer, Nikhil Chaudhary argued that the court did not comment on any bias or abuse of process in the grant of parole to Dutt and asked the petitioner not to single him out
Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt's parole seems to have caused quite a stir, leading to the petition by lawyer, Nikhil Chaudhari, who argued that while Dutt's extension was considered and decided within a week, similar petitions don't see the similar fate.
Sanjay Dutt has been out on parole since December 21
While hearing the PIL filed against the actor, Justice NH Patil said, "Over the years, we have noticed the government issuing circulars from time to time, asking divisional commissioners to consider and decide parole and furlough applications. However, these circulars seem to be violated."
In response, Dutt's lawyer, Hitesh Jain, submitted RTI documents that present the number of grants by the Pune divisional commissioner in the past three years. According to the documents, 1,500 pleas have been granted and only 15 rejected.
Speaking to MiD DAY, Jain said, "There has been no abuse of discretionary powers. His wife has been suffering from tuberculosis that has been verified by the doctors at JJ Hospital.
The court did not comment on any bias or abuse of process in the grant of parole to Sanjay and asked the petitioner not to single him out." Last week, Chief Minister, Prithviraj Chavan also defended the decision, saying that the divisional commisioner has not shown any bias towards Dutt and no rules were violated.
