Thursday, September 29 2005 16:23 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Union Cabinet today (Sept 29, 2005) approved an accord for transferring convicted Canadian prisoners to their home country from India and vice versa to allow them to interact with their families and help in their social rehabilitation.

A similar agreement on transfer of prisoners between India and Mauritius was also given a nod at a meeting of the Cabinet, presided by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Giving the salient features of the agreements, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said a request for transfer would have to be made by the convicted prisoner or a person entitled to act on his behalf keeping in view the age, physical or mental condition.

The request for transfer of the prisoners to serve the remaining part of their sentence in their home country was agreed upon by the transferring and receiving states, he said.

Observing that the transfer will be effected if the verdict was final in India with no appeal against judgement pending in any court, he said the transfer would be made if the convicted prisoner was a citizen of the receiving State notwithstanding that he might also be a citizen of another foreign country.

While the transferring state alone would be competent to decide any application for review of judgement, he said that either country could grant pardon, amnesty or commutation in accordance with the Constitution and other laws.

The convict, however, would not be repatriated if the transferring State was of the view that if would be prejudicial to its sovereignty, security or any other interest and if death penalty had been awarded to the prisoner.