Dutt seeks 6 more months to surrender

New Delhi: After crying before the cameras and expressing his resolve to abide by the judgment asking him to undergo another three-and-a-half year jail term for possessing illegal weapons 
during the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, actor Sanjay Dutt on Monday moved the Supreme Court seeking a six-month extension of his April 18 surrender deadline. 
    It needed 196 acting days to complete seven films with a budget of Rs 278 crore , Dutt said in his application which will come up for hearing by a bench headed by Justice P Sathasivam on Tuesday. 
    Meanwhile, a TADA judge informed Dutt's lawyer who approached him informally in Mumbai on Monday, that there was no provision in law for the actor to surrender directly to the jail authorities instead of in court. Dutt apparently wanted to avoid the media spotlight on his surrender. 
    Senior advocate Fali S Nariman also mentioned writ petitions by three convicts—70-year-old Zaibunisa Kazi, 76-year-old Issaq Hajwane and 88-year-old Sharif Dadabhai Parkar—before a bench headed by CJI Altamas Kabir citing old age and the jail term already undergone by them for seeking pardon.