Delhi HC Approves New Parole Guidelines

Delhi HC Approves New Parole Guidelines

The Delhi High Court on Thursday gave its nod to accept the fresh guidelines framed by the city government on parole for convicts and asked it to implement it within six weeks. Reported by The Hindustan times

The government assured a bench headed by Chief Justice A P Shah that it would no longer sit over parole plea and would decide in a time-bound manner within a month.

According to the guidelines, parole would not be granted to prisoners who had been convicted for murder and rape of minor children, murder after rape, not citizens of India and who had escaped from jail.

The government will grant parole or custody parole to those prisoners only in case of serious illness or critical condition, on account of accident or death of a family member besides the marriage of a family member, the guidelines said.

In December last year, Delhi government had come under fire for granting parole to Jessicca Lall murder case convict Manu Sharma, son of powerful Haryana politician Vinod Sharma, even while appeals by other prisoners for such relief were pending.

Under the new guidelines, those who are a threat to national security, involved in sedition or convicted for rape-cum-murder will not be granted parole.

The previous set of guidelines said if a person is believed to be dangerous for public peace and involved in cases like assault, rioting, mutiny, sedition, cruelty, under the anti-terrorism laws and for possession of explosives or dangerous weapon, committing and so on, he would not be considered for the relief.