Coming down heavily on the Delhi Administration, the High Court of Delhi in a recent decision has declared that it would not tolerate mingling of extraneous and irrelevant considerations in the grant of parole to the convicts. The High Court, dealing with the challenge to the denial of parole to a convict who sought such leave to file appeal against his conviction before the Supreme Court, was miffed by the the denial of parole on the ground that the family members of the convict could provide the necessary details for filing of appeal. To this regard, the Court observed that "the family members can never be a substitute in the matter of briefing the counsel, particularly in a serious matter where the accused has been sentenced to imprisonment for a period of 13 years. Hence, the respondent was not justified in denying parole on the ground that there are other members in the family of the petitioner who can arrange filing of Special Leave Petition on his behalf."
On the legal position, the High Court declared inter alia as under;
4. Grant of parole being an executive function, it is for the Government and not for the Court to consider the request made by a convict for grant of parole and pass appropriate orders on it. If, however, the order passed by the Government is found to be based on extraneous reasons or is on the grounds which are not relevant, or is otherwise unsustainable in law, being unjust or improper, it is open to the Court, in appropriate cases, to quash such an order and direct release on parole.
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