Patna High Court: A Division Bench of Amreshwar Pratap Sahi, CJ and Anjana Mishra, J. denied dismissed a petition filed for consideration of a parole application.
Petitioner 1 and 2 herein, who were awarded life sentence after conviction in a criminal case, filed an application praying for their release on parole on account of the marriage of their daughter and the sister respectively. The instant petition was filed seven days after moving the said application, praying for a mandamus directing the State government to consider parole application in accordance with Section 31-B of the Prisoners Act, 1900.
It was submitted by the State that the power of granting parole is guided by the Bihar Prisoners (Parole) Rules, 1973. Parole can be granted for special reasons including the marriage of son or daughter of the convict. According to Section 31-B of the Act, State government may grant parole on the recommendation of District Parole Board (DPB). The order for such release can be passed only after receiving the recommendation of DPB. Thus, there is a complete procedure provided for the consideration of the grant of parole by the State government to a prisoner.
The Court opined that parole application can be disposed of by the State government on its own, and issuing mandamus for its compliance within seven days may curtail DPB’s time of assessment in order to make a recommendation before such a release is considered. In view thereof, issuance of mandamus was denied observing that it will be open to the State government to pass appropriate orders after complying with the procedure in accordance with the law.[Uma Shankar Tiwary v. State of Bihar, 2019 SCC OnLine Pat 247, decided on 25-02-2019]
