Nagpur
: A division bench of the Supreme Court has continued suspension of the impugned sentence of imprisonment for seven days imposed on the appellant Anoop Madhukarrao Kumre, Superintendent of Central Jail, Nagpur, by Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court on March 16, 2022, till further orders.
The Supreme Court bench comprising Justice Ajay Rastogi and Justice Vikram Nath has issued the interim direction while admitting the contempt appeal filed by the said jail official and also issued notice to the High Court on the administrative side for making submissions in reply to the appeal by July 29 next.
Passing a suo motu order on March 16, 2022, a division bench of the High Court in Nagpur had convicted the appellant Kumre for committing wilful disobedience of its binding precedent and sentenced him to undergo simple imprisonment for seven days. The conviction was for wrongfully releasing six ineligible convicts and for not releasing 35 eligible convicts, while deciding their emergency parole applications under Rule 19(1)(C)(i) & (ii) of Maharashtra Prisons (Mumbai Furlough & Parole) Rules of May 8, 2020 and in the process defying the Bombay High Court in the judgment of the case — Milind Patil v State of Maharashtra of July 16, 2020.
It has been contended on behalf of the appellant that he has not deliberately disrespected the ratio of the judgment in the case of Milind Patil, but Covid-19 pandemic and heavy work pressure resulted in the passing orders without taking the said judgment into consideration and the apology tendered by him to the High Court should have been accepted.
Adv Sudheer Voditel appeared for the appellant Central Jail Superintendent.
