| Submit your comments on this article |
| India-Pakistan |
| Sanjay Dutt's mercy plea finds support from govt |
| 2013-03-22 |
| NEW DELHI: An appeal from the Press Council of India (PCI) chief, Justice (retd) Markandey Katju to the Maharashtra governor K Sankarnarayan seeking mercy for actor Sanjay Dutt seems to have found favour from the government with several UPA ministers on Friday suggesting if the Bollywood star approaches the governor an "appropriate" decision may be taken. "Governor will use his discretionary power when there will be an appeal to him. He has the power to pardon," said law minister Ashwani Kumar. He, however, refrained from giving his own opinion on it. Information and broadcasting minister Manish Tewari said the authorities will take cognizance of the matter at an appropriate level. "Justice Katju has been a very eminent judge of the Supreme Court. Whenever he articulates a position on an issue, people both inside and outside the government listen to it carefully," Tewari told reporters. Tourism minister and film star Chiranjeevi too favoured mercy, saying Dutt, "should get mercy ... if he gets mercy, I will be the most happiest person." Earlier, Justice Katju had appealed to the governor K Sankarnarayan seeking pardon for Dutt on humanitarian grounds under Article 162 of the Constitution after the apex court had upheld his five-year sentence in the 1993 blasts case. However, Raj Bhavan officials in Mumbai said they were yet to receive any official communication in this regard from Justice Katju. Maharashtra home minister R R Patil said that the state government too had not received any application in this regard. "The entire issue was being handled by the centre. I haven't yet read the entire SC judgment," he said. Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan chose not to comment on the issue. Plea for clemency for the film star has been made by some allies of the Congress too. NCP general secretary D P Tripathi made a strong pitch for mercy. "The governor has the right and he should give clemency to Dutt who has not been accused of any involvement in terrorist activities but illegal possession of arms," Tripathi said. Opposition BJP was more cautious. BJP spokesperson Prakash Javdekar said, "Review petition has been allowed to be filed by the SC. Now it is up to Sanjay Dutt whether he wants to file or not. Let's see what they have to decide." Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan said she will appeal to Maharashtra governor K Sankarnarayanan to pardon Dutt. "I agree with everyone that he has suffered a lot. I believe that he should not be given such a big punishment. He is a changed man now. I'm going to personally appeal governor and ask him to pardon him," she said. |
| Posted by:john frum |