KATHMANDU: The Supreme Court today issued a show cause notice to the government in response to a writ petition filed by murder convict Charles Gurmukh Sobhraj yesterday.

Sobhraj, who is serving time in the Central Jail, had filed a writ petition yesterday demanding hike in daily and dietary allowances on par with the police personnel. The government provides prisoners Rs 45 and 700 grams of rice every day.

Sobhraj said in his petition that the government had hiked daily allowance for police personnel deployed in jails keeping in view the price hike but not for the prisoners.

Sobhraj said the amount of rice and daily allowance provided by the government to the prisoners was not enough.

He also stated that the government had not implemented National Human Rights Commission’s recommendation to hike daily allowance from Rs 45 to 145. The Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers has also been named as defendant in the case.