NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has said that parole cannot be repeatedly denied on the same grounds once a court has already ruled on the matter. The Court further observed that jail officials must deal with parole requests with greater care and compassion.
Justice Neena Bansal Krishna, in a recent order, stressed that once a judicial mind has weighed in on the merit of a ground for rejecting or granting parole, jail authorities are expected to follow that view diligently.
“It is hereby directed that while considering the Parole/Furlough Applications, the same ground should not be repeatedly reiterated for rejection of Parole/Furlough Application. Once a judicial mind has been disclosed in any Order about the validity of any ground for Rejection or Non-Rejection of the Parole/Furlough Application, the same should be more judiciously and scrupulously adhered to by the Jail Authorities,” read the order dated April 16.
The Court was hearing a petition by a convict seeking four weeks of parole. The petitioner, who is serving a life sentence for rape and murder, has already spent over two decades in prison. He told the court that he had previously been granted parole or furlough several times, and had only once surrendered late, during emergency parole granted in the COVID-19 lockdown, which he said was due to being unaware of the surrender date.
The High Court had previously considered this delay in a January 2024 order and had held that it was not a valid reason to deny parole. Yet, in the present case, the jail authorities again rejected his plea on the same ground.
Calling this repeated justification “most glaring”, the Court criticised the jail department for its failure to act in time on the parole plea filed in November 2024. The authorities only made a decision after the petitioner filed a writ petition and the High Court issued a notice, a delay the Court called “arbitrary”.
“Once, the Court has specifically observed that this is not a valid ground for denying Parole, the insistence to persist in making this as a ground of rejection of Parole every time compelling the Petitioner to come to the Court, is neither warranted nor appreciated. The Jail administration must be conscious and aware of the Orders being made by the Court and follow them scrupulously,” the Court remarked.
Justice Bansal Krishna also reminded the authorities that the right to life applies even to those behind bars. “It cannot be overlooked that he has been in jail for more than 20 years; may be for a crime that he has committed but that does not denude him of his basic Right to Life.”