New Delhi, Aug 24: Disagreeing with the government's stand that it would not release Pakistani prisoners even after they had served their sentence unless the Indians there are released, the Attorney General has said such a stand was legally untenable.
"To my mind, such a stand is legally untenable apart from adverse repercussions it will have on the image of India internationally. Prisoners cannot be used as hostages or used as levers for bargaining," he said in a letter to Home Secretary N Gopalaswami.
Sorabjee noted that the Government of India's stand emanated from the fact that Pakistan was not acceding to its request for release of Indian prisoners as per its requirement," sources said quoting the letter.
According to the sources, the Attorney General has made it clear that the fundamental right to life and liberty guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution extended to the foreigners.
In the letter, Sorabjee conveyed to the government an apex court bench's view expressed on Thursday that those Pakistani nationals, who have served their sentence and not detained under any order, should be deported.



During an earlier hearing pertaining to 14 Pakistani prisoners, the government, through Additional Solicitor General Altaf Ahmed, had taken the stand that some of these prisoners were kept in detention so as to enable the India to secure the release of number of Indians lodged in Pakistani jails.


Bureau Report