The Principal Bench of the Madras High Court on Monday stated that the subsistence of the interim orders passed by it, that were supposed to get terminated on March 20, will be extended till June 30, 2020. It might be noted anyway that the orders identifying with parole/leave allowed by the High Court to the life and different convicts, as an impermanent measure to decongest prison facilities, have just been reached up till June 8, 2020. The request has been passed by a bench of Justice M. Sathyanarayanan and Justice Abdul Quddhose. The request stated as under:
"It is a well settled position of law that once there, the stigma attached to the conviction remains, unless it is set aside by the Appellate Forum. Once a person is convicted, presumption of innocence is no longer available to him/her.
…if convicts, especially, the life convicts remain at large, on account of interim orders of parole/leave granted by this Court, there is every likelihood of retaliatory attack in the form of grievous injury/death also."
The remand orders, both Section 167 CrPC and Section 309 CrPC have likewise been extended till June 30, 2020, considering the trouble underway of remand detainees under the steady gaze of the Courts, either face to face or by means of video conferencing. As respects the expansion of time of confinement, the Bench stated, the issue was settled by the Supreme Court In Re-Cognizance For Extension Of Limitation and that the Court is limited by the requests passed by the Supreme Court in such manner every now and then. Moreover, as a response to this order, a division bench comprising Justice PN Prakash and Justice B. Pugalendhi of the Madurai Bench of the High Court also extended mant interim orders passed by it till June 30, 2020, and the orders related to grant of parole/leave, were extended till June 8, 2020.