CHENNAI: Madras high court has imposed Rs 50,000 cost on joint secretaries of Union home and external affairs ministries for failing to assist the court in connection with a habeas corpus plea moved by the son of an Indian who was convicted in a narcotics case in Sri Lanka and later repatriated to India.A division bench of Justice Anita Sumanth and Justice Sunder Mohan passed the order on a plea moved by Mohamed Sameer seeking to produce his father Zahir Hussain and set him at liberty.Zahir Hussain was convicted by a Sri Lankan court on May 18, 2015, for life for offences relating to drug trafficking, specifically possession of 720 grams of heroin. Subsequently, he sought repatriation to India for serving his sentence.The request came to be considered, and by order dated July 29, 2016, the joint secretary of home affairs reduced the sentence, ostensibly on a par with the sentence by an Indian court for the same offence.When the plea came up for hearing, the court noted the reduction of sentence and observed that the sentence, as modified by the joint secretary, is not in line with the punishment prescribed under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.“The sentence stipulated is till Sept 21, 2022, when the convict would have suffered sentence of only seven years whereas the sentence, had he been convicted under Indian law, would have been 10 years. This is perhaps why the habeas corpus petition has been filed only in 2026 after 10 years of sentence,” the court said.This apart, Article 8 of the Constitution states that the receiving state shall be bound by the legal nature and duration of the sentence as determined by the transferring state. Hence, it is normally required for the receiving state to enforce the sentence as awarded by the foreign court, the bench added.“An exception is made out in Article 8(2) in a situation where the sentence is, by its nature or duration or both, incompatible with Indian Law. In such circumstances, the authority may, after obtaining a court order or passing an administrative order for which the consent of the Sri Lanka has also to be obtained, adapt the sentence to one of punishment as prescribed by the Indian govt,” the judges said.Despite repeated inquiries, the authorities were unable to show any exchange of communication between the countries, prompting the court to impose the cost.
