HC seeks AAP govt's reply on O P Chautala's plea

The Delhi High Court today sought response of the AAP government on the plea of INLD chief O P Chautala, serving a 10-year jail term in a recruitment scam case, against a single judge's order cancelling his furlough.

A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal asked the counsel for the Delhi government to take instructions on Chautala's plea which alleged that the single judge has committed an error by cancelling his furlough.

The court has fixed the matter for March 30.

The single judge had on March 1 cancelled the parole and furlough granted to Chautala on medical grounds, and asked him to "surrender forthwith", saying he "cocked a snook" at the court and "misled" it by feigning illness.
 

Challenging the order, senior counsel Sudhir Nandrajog and advocate Amit Sahni, appearing for the politician, said the single judge did not appreciate that Chautala had not violated any parole condition. They said the judge had "committed an error" by cancelling the three-week furlough granted by the Director General (DG) of Tihar jail.

The single judge had issued the direction on a complaint by a private person alleging that the former Haryana chief minister was misusing his parole to attend public meetings.

83-year-old Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) chief has also submitted that his grandson Dushyant Chautala, an MP, was getting married in mid-April and even this was not considered by the judge.

Chautala, his son Ajay Chautala and three others are serving 10-year jail terms in the teachers recruitment scam case.

The Supreme Court had in August 2015 dismissed the Chautalas' appeals against the high court verdict upholding their conviction and sentence of 10 years awarded by a trial court in the junior basic trained (JBT) teachers recruitment scam case.

The high court had on March 5, 2015 upheld the 10-year jail terms awarded to the two Chautalas and three others, saying, "The overwhelming evidence showed spine-chilling state of affairs in the country."

The father-son duo and 53 others, including two IAS officers, were among 55 persons convicted on January 16, 2013 by the trial court for illegally recruiting 3,206 JBT teachers in Haryana in 2000.