Convict has right to start afresh, says HC

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court (HC) recently held convicts have the right to forget their past and start afresh and that the conviction cannot be allowed to haunt them for the rest of their lives.

The division bench of justices TV Nalavade and Sunil Kotwal on January 31 rejected a petition seeking to disqualify 75-year-old Baliram Sonawane from the post of chairman, Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC), Jalgaon. The petition said that in 1970 he had been convicted for murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Noting that Sonawane completed his life term in 1990 and contested the APMC elections in 2007, the judges said society needs to know the past of candidates contesting elections, but a convict also has the right to “forget the past and needs to be allowed to make a new beginning.” “Others also cannot be allowed to harass him and to deprive him of aforesaid rights and the previous conviction cannot be allowed to haunt him for rest of his life,” it said, while rejecting the petition filed by Baliram’s rival, Shantaram Sonawane.

In September 2012, Shantaram had lodged a complaint with the district deputy registrar, co-operative societies, seeking a declaration that Baliram was disqualified from holding the post of APMC chairman on account of his conviction. He moved the HC after the state government issued an order on May 8, 2013, declaring Baliram as qualified for the post.