The Tamil Nadu government on Monday challenged a court order directing it to grant at least two weeks ordinary leave to P Ravichandran, convicted in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, at the Madras high court bench here.

Ravichandran, 16th accused in the case, was found guilty of participating in criminal conspiracy to assassinate the former prime minister and was sentenced to death along with 25 others by special court on January 28, 1998. The supreme court had commuted his sentence to life term.

Ravichandran is undergoing life term at central prison here and has spent more than 20 years in prison. His mother Rajeshwari had filed a writ petition in the Madurai bench of the high court seeking to release his son on 30 days ordinary leave for settling family disputes and also to make arrangements for maintenance of lands, properties and house.

Justice V Ramasubramanian on December 20 had directed authorities to release Ravichandran on ordinary leave for at least two weeks and pass appropriate orders within two weeks prescribing the date, time and the modality for working out other details.

While passing the order, the judge had also pointed out the prisoner had gone out only three occasions for short spells. On all those occasions, his conduct and character in the society, had not come to adverse notice, he said.

The Tamil Nadu government had filed a writ appeal in the Madurai bench of Madras high court seeking to stay the order of the single judge.

R Anbalagan, superintendent of prisons, Madurai, submitted that in the earlier occasions, Ravichandran was released on leave for a total of 14 days on three different occasion along with heavy police escort party headed by the deputy superintendent of police, surveillance.

But now, the high court had directed to grant at least two weeks ordinary leave, which was a "very long duration," he said.

The state government said that the prisoner was involved in the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and his presence outside the prison may be dangerous or prejudicial to public peace and tranquility and the security of the prisoner also would not be safe.

The government pointed out the prisoner had also not paid escort charges to the tune of about Rs 1.3 lakh that had been spent when he had gone on leave. In the event of his release further, he had to pay a large amount as escort charges, it said.

The deployment of a large number of policemen in Virudhunagar district as escort for the prisoner, would also affect the normalcy in the area, it added.