Implement fresh guidelines on parole within six weeks: HC

The Delhi High Court on Thursday accepted the fresh guidelines framed by the city government on parole for convicts and asked it to implement it within six weeks.

The Delhi High Court on Thursday accepted the fresh guidelines framed by the city government on parole for convicts and asked it to implement it within six weeks.

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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 Venod Sharma, even while appeals by other prisoners for such relief were pending.

As per the guidelines, the government will not grant parole to convicts involved in offences like sedition and whose release on parole has serious repercussion on national security should not be given the facility.