HYDERABAD: A division bench of the Hyderabad High Court has held that continued illness of a relative of a prisoner is not a ground for extending parole.
As per the Prison Rules, the period of release on parole shall not, ordinarily, exceed a month. However, the government has been given power to decide the period of such release, on the merit of each case, in exceptional circumstances, the bench observed.
The bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice Shameem Akther dismissed an appeal by Mohammad Irfan Ali challenging a single judge order refusing to grant him extension of parole for another additional six months.
The appellant, who was serving life imprisonment at Cherlapalli central prison for murdering a deputy secretary of Wakf Board, was earlier granted parole for one month i.e. from Sept 4, 2015 onwards. He moved the high court seeking directions to the authorities to consider his representation for extension of parole. A single judge while disposing of the case directed the petitioner to surrender before the Superintendent of Jails and suggested him to file a fresh application to the concerned authorities and the latter was directed to consider the same.
The judge made it clear that if the petitioner failed to surrender before the concerned authority on or before Dec 15, 2016, since the time was extended up to Nov 18, 2016, the latter was at liberty to take appropriate action to secure the petitioner, and detain him in prison to serve the remaining sentence. Irfan Ali had approached the division bench for relief. After hearing the case and perusing the material on record, including the Prison Rules, the bench found that the appellant has been on parole from Sept 4, 2015 and has still not surrendered himself before the concerned prison authorities.
While the parole granted to him was only for a period of a month, he has stayed outside prison for the past one year and four months. That the appellant suffering from cancer is not reason enough for the extension, the bench noted. This is a case where a Wakf Board officer was called to a place in the night and was killed in a planned manner,” the bench noted. While dismissing the appeal, the bench upheld the order of the judge who directed him to surrender before the jail superintendent.