Rajasthan High Court - Jaipur
Vijay Kumar S/O Shri Om Prakash vs State Of Rajasthan on 9 November, 2022
Author: Birendra Kumar
Bench: Birendra Kumar
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE FOR RAJASTHAN
BENCH AT JAIPUR
S.B. Criminal Writ Petition No. 552/2022
Vijay Kumar S/o Shri Om Prakash, R/o Koripura Math, Masalpur,
Police Station Masalpur, District Karauli (Raj.)
(At Present Confined In Central Jail Sewar, Bharatpur)
Through His Brother- Shiv Kumar S/o Shri Om Prakash, Aged
About 30 Years, R/o Koripura Math, Masalpur, Police Station
Masalpur, District Karauli (Raj.)
----Petitioner
Versus
1. State Of Rajasthan, Through The Secretary, Department
Of Home, Govt. Secretariat, Jaipur.
2. The Director General Of Prisons, Directorate Prison,
Rajasthan, Jaipur.
3. The Superintendent, Central Jail, Sewar Bharatpur.
----Respondents
For Petitioner(s) : Mr. Govind Prasad Rawat, Adv. For Respondent(s) : Mr. Prashant Sharma, Dy. GC HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE BIRENDRA KUMAR Order 09/11/2022 The petitioner is aggrieved by order dated 19.7.2022 at Annexure-1, whereby, the parole committee refused to grant permanent parole to the petitioner, on the ground that the petitioner had not availed third parole as required by Rule 10 of the Rajasthan Prisoners Release on Parole Rules 2021.
The petitioner is a convict in Session Case No.149/2018 for the offences under Sections 363, 366, 376(2)(n) of the IPC and under Section 3 (2)(v) of SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and was sentenced to imprisonment for life. The petitioner had (Downloaded on 11/11/2022 at 09:24:23 PM) (2 of 3) [CRLW-552/2022] challenged the conviction in D.B. Criminal Appeal No.16/2019. This Court only reduced the sentence from imprisonment for life to imprisonment for 10 years by judgment dated 29.07.2019. The petitioner has already served out 8 years 11 months and 1 day sentence including parole period till 21.09.2022.
Rule 10 of the Parole Rules, 2021 reads as follows :-
"10. Parole Period.- A prisoner, who has completed with remission, if any, one-fourth of his sentence and subject to good conduct in the Jail, may be released on first parole for twenty days including days of journey to home and back and for thirty days on second parole if his behaviour has been good during the first parole and for fourty days on third parole if his behaviour has been good during the second parole. If during the third parole also the prisoner has behaved well and his character has been exceedingly well and if the prisoner's conduct has been such that he is not likely to relapse into crime, his case may be recommended to the Government through the State Committee for permanent release on parole if he has served two third of sentence including remission on such conditions as deemed fit by the State Committee. The State Government may, on recommendation of the State Committee, grant parole on such conditions as deemed necessary by it among them the main condition being that if the prisoner while on parole commits any offence or abets, directly or indirectly, commission of any offence, he has to undergo the unexpired portion of the sentence in addition to any sentence imposed upon him for such an offence. In case the permanent release on parole is rejected, the prisoner shall be eligible for release on parole for fourty days every year on the same conditions for the remaining period of his sentence:
Provided that the cases of prisoners who have been sentenced to imprisonment for life, for an offence for which death penalty is one of the punishments provided by law or who have been sentenced to death but this sentence has been commuted under section 433 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 into one of life imprisonment shall not be placed before the State Committee for permanent release on parole unless he has served fourteen years of imprisonment excluding remission, but including the period of detention during enquiry, investigation or trial. Such prisoners may be (Downloaded on 11/11/2022 at 09:24:23 PM) (3 of 3) [CRLW-552/2022] released on parole for fourty days every year for the remaining period of their sentence subject to the conditions as stated above.
Provided further that if a prisoner has not applied any regular periodic parole or not availed any regular parole for any reason shall not be disqualified for permanent parole.
Provided also that no second and subsequent release on parole, except release on permanent parole, shall be made unless eleven months have elapsed from the date of the expiry of the period of release on parole immediately preceding."
A bare perusal of the aforesaid rule makes it clear that there is no need for availing third parole for the grant of permanent parole. The only requirement is that during the parole period, the petitioner maintains good conduct. The same requirement is there for maintaining good conduct in the prison also. The Jail Authorities have reported that during incarceration, the conduct of the petitioner was satisfactory. Only for the reason that the petitioner did not avail the third parole, would not disentitle the petitioner from seeking permanent parole if other conditions are fulfilled, i.e., satisfactory conduct and completion of the required period of imprisonment, i.e., 2/3rd of the sentence including remission.
Considering the legal requirement aforesaid, the impugned order is hereby quashed and the matter is remitted back to the Competent Authority to decide the claim of the petitioner according to law within one month.
The petition is accordingly allowed.
(BIRENDRA KUMAR),J Ashwani/-85 (Downloaded on 11/11/2022 at 09:24:23 PM) Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)