Judgment / Order

12/05/2021 Heard.

Issue notice.

Mr.S.S.Rajpurohit, Public Prosecutor accepts notice on behalf of the respondents. With the consent of the learned counsel for the parties, the matter is being heard and decided today.

The convict was granted third parole for a period of 40 days by the District Parole Committee, Dungarpur vide dated 01.04.2021. He has approached this Court through this criminal writ petition seeking extension of the date of surrender/period of parole by 30 days or till next guidelines issued by the State Government. It may be stated that in the intervening period, the convict has been infected by Corona Virus, due to which, he could not surrender on the date fixed.

This Court feels that the prayer for extension of parole period made by the petitioner has to be accepted in light of the mandatory guidelines laid down by Hon’ble the Supreme Court in Suo Moto Writ (Civil) Petition No.01/2020; In Re : Contagion of Covid-19 Virus in Prisons wherein, it has been directed as below:-

“10. Second, the rapid proliferation of the virus amongst the inmates of congested prisons is a matter of serious concern. The High Powered Committees constituted by the State Governments/Union Territories shall consider release of prisoners by adopting the guidelines (such as inter alia, SOP laid down by NALSA) followed by them last year, at the earliest. Such of those States which have not constituted High Powered Committees last year are directed to do so immediately. Commissioner of Police Delhi shall also be a member of the High Powered Committee, Delhi.

11. Third, due to the immediate concern of the raging pandemic, this court has to address the issue of de- congestion. We find merit in the submission of Mr. Colin Gonsalves, learned Senior Counsel appearing on behalf of the applicant, that the High-Powered Committee, in addition to considering fresh release,should forthwith release all the inmates who had been released earlier pursuant to our order23.03.2020, by imposing appropriate conditions. Such an exercise is mandated in order to save valuable time.

12. Fourth, further we direct that, those inmates who were granted parole, pursuant to our earlier orders, should be again granted a parole for a period of 90 days in order to tide over the pandemic.”

In view of the above mandate of Hon’ble the Supreme Courtin the matter of In Re : Contagion of Covid 19 in Prisons (Supra), we hereby direct that the parole period of the convict- petitioner shall be extended by a period of 90 days from

12.05.2021. He shall be required to surrender on 10.08.2021. The petitioner’s non-surrender before the concerned authority on

11.05.2021 is exempted.

The parole writ petition is disposed of in the above terms.

(MANOJ KUMAR GARG),J

96-NK/-