The plea of the wife of former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Sanjiv Bhatt, who is serving a life sentence, requesting the Gujarat High Court not to transfer his jail, was rejected on the ground that she has no right to seek such a request as the matter lies within administrative discretion.
The court observed that Bhatt’s transfer to Palanpur jail was only temporary during the trial of a narcotics case and that he was later moved back to Rajkot Central Jail to serve his life sentence, as mandated by prison regulations.
Sanjiv Bhatt, an IIT Mumbai graduate and a Gujarat-cadre IPS officer, has been at the centre of a prolonged legal saga marked by his dismissal from service, criminal convictions, and allegations against the state administration. His wife, Shweta Bhatt, had approached the High Court seeking to prevent his transfer from Palanpur jail, expressing concern that he might be shifted to another facility.
The state government informed the court that Bhatt was required to serve his life term at Rajkot Central Jail, which is the designated prison for inmates from Jamnagar district, and asserted that the petitioner could not claim a right to decide the place of imprisonment.
The court held that the decision regarding the place of detention rests with the prison administration and not with the prisoner or their relatives. It found that Bhatt’s stay in Palanpur jail was a procedural arrangement made during the pendency of his NDPS case and that his subsequent transfer to Rajkot Central Jail was in accordance with existing prison rules.
The bench concluded that there was no arbitrariness or mala fide intention in the government’s order, stating that Bhatt has no absolute right to demand incarceration in a specific jail.
Bhatt was sentenced to life imprisonment on June 20, 2019, by the Jamnagar sessions court in connection with a 1990 custodial death case and was later convicted by the Banaskantha sessions court on March 27, 2024, in an NDPS case. He and Constable Vajubhai Chau, whose case was abated after his death, were accused of torturing a man in police custody to extract a confession in a TADA and Arms Act case.
Once a high-profile IPS officer, Bhatt came into national prominence after filing an affidavit in the Supreme Court accusing then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi of complicity in the 2002 riots, though the Special Investigation Team later found no evidence to support his claims.