BOMBAY: Alarmed by the constant threat to his life, the high profile TADA court judge J.N. Patel has sought an insurance cover of Rs 50 lakh. Of course, Patel’s request is not inked to their lease of film star Sanjay Dutt following a Supreme Court order as the judge had made the application two months ago. “A final decision will be taken by the Law and Judiciary department in Consultation with the Bombay High ‘Court as well as the Finance Department,” Subramanian told Indian express last week.
Though the Law and Judiciary Department has agreed in principle to accept Patel’s request the Finance Department has called for more information on the demand, It has asked the Law and Judiciary Department to submit if such a cover was earlier given to any of the members of the judiciary, secondly, the period of insurance and thirdly, the premium amount, a senior official said.
The official said following Patel’s request, the Sena BJP government will have to take a policy decision as there was threat to the lives of senior members of the judiciary as well as police officials handling sensitive cases.
Patel’s contention was that irrespective of the fact that whether he hears the TADA cases or otherwise, there was a constant threat not only to his life, but also to the lives of his family members, the official pointed out.
At the moment, only the police officials deployed in the naxalinfested Chandrapur Gadchiroli Bhandare areas have been given an insurance cover of Rs 1 lakh in view of constant threat to their lives.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 27, 1995
