Chennai: In a path-breaking initiative, a judge of Madras High Court is adopting unorthodox means to punish accused from affluent sections of society rather than imposing customary penal provisions.

Famous film actress Roja, who faces charges of not returning money borrowed from a financer and check-bounce case, had to spend a day with children at an orphanage and an MLA, in the thick of charges of intimidation in land dispute, had to read Gandhian literature at a government museum.

Yet another of his unorthodox orders came when he told leaders of a Panchayat to apologise to a woman in an open court for the injustice they had meted out to her.

Justice M Karpagavinayagam believes that rather than adopting traditional methods like slapping fines or laying down conditions for bail pleas as specified in the Criminal Procedure Code, there are better ways of making a person realise his or her mistakes.

"This court does not want the petitioner punished in the form of onerous conditions by asking him to report to the police station or to court in some other place," the Judge had said on Sept 17 while ordering Congress Jananayaga Peravai MLA B Renganathan to read Gandhian literature instead of the usual bail conditions barring a personal bond for Rs 1,000.

The MLA was not complaining and sincerely fulfilled the conditions laid down by the judge by spending five days at the government Gandhi Museum in Madurai and reading Gandhi's autobiography "The story of my experiments with truth".

"I don't feel bad about coming to the museum library. I like this place... I have read a lot about Gandhi. I came to politics only after reading Gandhi's books," Renganathan told reporters from Madurai.

Renganathan, who faces as many as seven cases, has, however, accused the police of foisting cases against him for his criticism of Chief Minister J Jayalalitha.

The judge had also directed the MLA to visit the Gandhian Study Circle at the Thakar Baba Vidyalaya from September 29 until further orders, considering the need or his presence in the city constituency.

A week earlier, Justice Karpagavinayagam in an interim order had directed the legislator to purchase Gandhi's autobiography and produce cash receipt in the court after reading the book.

A few months ago, South Indian Film actress Roja, who faces charges in a city court for not returning money allegedly borrowed by her from a financier and in a cheque bounce case, was directed by the same Judge to spend a day at an orphanage for failure to respond to summons to appear in court.

"I enjoyed the day at the orphanage. It was a nice experience", the actress had told reporters after a day with the orphans.

PTI