The Bombay High Court yesterday gave the Maharashtra government a final chance to respond to a public interest litigation petition alleging misuse of parole by prisoners..According to this PTI report, a Bench presided by Justice Abhay Oka asked the Maharashtra government to file its response within two weeks and also warned the State that this would be the last chance to file a response. The State had earlier filed an affidavit but the High Court was not satisfied with the same..The petition has been filed by one Rajan Pandurang Parkar. Advocate N Gawankar appeared for Parkar yesterday..Parkar has submitted in his petition that prisoners are misusing the parole provision by citing the same reasons repeatedly..“In 80 per cent cases in Maharashtra, male prisoners are released on parole leave on the ground that their wives have to undergo hysterectomy and many a times this ground is repeatedly cited by the same prisoner to get this facility again and again”, submitted Gawankar..The Prison Furlough and Parole Rules (Rules) govern grant of parole to prisoners. Parole is granted if a close relative of a prisoner is sick. Rule 20 of the Rules had earlier provided that the parole period would not be included in the sentence served..However, this was amended by the State government in December 2015 by way of a notification. After the amendment, the period of parole would be included in the sentence served by the prisoner..Parkar has challenged this notification, arguing that the parole period should not be included in the sentence served by prisoners and that prisoners should be made to serve the number of days they have remained out of prison on parole.
The Bombay High Court yesterday gave the Maharashtra government a final chance to respond to a public interest litigation petition alleging misuse of parole by prisoners..According to this PTI report, a Bench presided by Justice Abhay Oka asked the Maharashtra government to file its response within two weeks and also warned the State that this would be the last chance to file a response. The State had earlier filed an affidavit but the High Court was not satisfied with the same..The petition has been filed by one Rajan Pandurang Parkar. Advocate N Gawankar appeared for Parkar yesterday..Parkar has submitted in his petition that prisoners are misusing the parole provision by citing the same reasons repeatedly..“In 80 per cent cases in Maharashtra, male prisoners are released on parole leave on the ground that their wives have to undergo hysterectomy and many a times this ground is repeatedly cited by the same prisoner to get this facility again and again”, submitted Gawankar..The Prison Furlough and Parole Rules (Rules) govern grant of parole to prisoners. Parole is granted if a close relative of a prisoner is sick. Rule 20 of the Rules had earlier provided that the parole period would not be included in the sentence served..However, this was amended by the State government in December 2015 by way of a notification. After the amendment, the period of parole would be included in the sentence served by the prisoner..Parkar has challenged this notification, arguing that the parole period should not be included in the sentence served by prisoners and that prisoners should be made to serve the number of days they have remained out of prison on parole.
