HC reserves order on AAP MP Sandeep Pathak’s plea to meet Kejriwal in jail

New Delhi, Aug 22 (PTI) The Delhi High Court on Thursday reserved its order on AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sandeep Kumar Pathak’s plea seeking a direction to prison authorities to allow him a physical meeting with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in Tihar jail.

Justice Neena Bansal Krishna reserved the order after hearing the submissions of the counsel for Pathak and Tihar authorities.

The jail authorities had permitted Pathak to meet Kejriwal twice in April but refused to give him permission this time, claiming that certain statements made by him after meeting the chief minister were in contravention of prison rules and mostly politically motivated.

Pathak’s counsel has contended that the prison authority’s decision to deny him a physical meeting with Kejriwal in jail was “arbitrary, illegal and completely unjustified”.

Opposing Pathak’s plea, the jail authorities have contended that he deliberately violated the prison consideration and spoke to the media on the deliberations he had with Kejriwal, and that the prison administration is not in favour of allowing him the facility of physical ‘mulakat’ with the inmate in view of his past conduct.

The counsel representing the jail administration said Pathak has submitted that he is a political person and he will talk of politics, which is against the prison rules.

Kejriwal is lodged in Tihar jail under judicial custody in the alleged excise policy scam.

Pathak has submitted that he has not been in violation of Rule 587 of the Delhi Prisons Rules as alleged by the authorities.

Rule 587 states that the conversation at the interviews with inmates shall be limited to private and domestic matters and there shall be no reference to the prison administration and discipline and to other prisoners or politics.

Some of the statements the jail authorities claimed Pathak made after visiting Kejriwal are – “Kejriwal is CM and will remain the CM and if needed he will run the government from inside the jail” and “From next week onwards, the CM will call two ministers to jail every week, there he will review their departments and give them guidelines and directions”.

On April 24, just an hour before the meeting, Pathak received an email from the jail authorities stating, “Further, the request of physical mulakat of Sandeep Kumar Pathak has not been considered as he misused the mulakat facility by making statements against prison administration and has issued political statements after his physical interview and such conduct is in violation of Rule 587 of Delhi Prison Rules, 2018 and his Mulakat facility is restricted accordingly.”