Rajasthan High Court disposed a petition which claimed that the applicant was not considered for regular parole of 40 days .
The State has filed reply to the petition and argued that the petitioner was convicted for the offence punishable under Sections 120 B, 396/120B, 302/120B, 323/120B, 324/120B, 395/120B of IPC and sentenced for life imprisonment by the Additional District and Sessions Judge No.3, Bikaner vide judgment dated 30.08.2017 passed in Sessions Case .
It is further argued that since the petitioner has been convicted and sentenced for the offence punishable under Section 396/120B of IPC, which is prohibited section, and as per Rule 16 (2) (b) of Rajasthan Prisoners Release on Parole Rules, 2021 he is not eligible for grant of parole.
The Counsel for the petitioner has submitted that the Rules of 2021 came into force on 30.06.2021, whereas the petitioner was convicted on 30.08.2017, therefore, the application for releasing the petitioner on 40 days’ parole required to be considered under the Rajasthan Prisoners Release on Parole Rules, 1958 and not under the Rules of 2021. The counsel for the petitioner has placed reliance on the decision dated 24.01.2023 rendered by Supreme Court in Hitesh @ Bavko Shivshankar Dave Vs. State of Gujarat: [Writ Petition (Criminal) No.467/2022].
The division bench of Justice Vijay Bishnoi and Justice Rajendra Prakash Soni noted that in the above referred judgment, the Supreme Court have concluded that the policy of the State on the date of conviction would be the determinative factor and in case the policy is subsequently liberalized, the same would be taken into consideration while dealing with the application for premature release by the Authorities.
In view of the above, the High Court is of the view that the application filed by the petitioner for releasing him on 40 days’ parole required to be considered under the Rules of 1958.
“In such circumstances, we deem it appropriate to dispose of this criminal parole writ petition with a direction to the respondents to consider and decide the application filed by the petitioner for releasing him on 40days’ parole in accordance with the rules of 1958 within a period one month from the date of production of the certified copy of this order”, the order reads.