The Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court has quashed an order issued by the superintendent of prisons of Amravati Central Jail, rejecting a convict’s application seeking parole on the grounds of COVID-19.
A Division Bench of Justices Sunil Shukre and Avinash Gharote was hearing a criminal petition filed by Ayyaz Khan Zabaz Khan, who is serving a life sentence for murder. The plea challenged the order rejecting his parole application filed on October 6, 2020.
The court said the superintendent should decide on releasing prisoners after assessing the COVID-19 situation in prisons. The court said prisons rules need to be looked into based on the COVID-19 situation, which requires decongesting prisons to curb the spread of the virus. “It is in the changed circumstances of the rules that implementation of the provision relating to release of convicts on COVID-19 parole has to be considered,” it said.
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The Bench said it would be necessary for the superintendent to assess from time to time the COVID-19 situation in prisons, measures to ensure social distancing in prisons, the number of COVID-19 inmates, whether they can be placed in isolation, the threat posed to other inmates, the number of inmates to be released to decongest the prison, the category of prisoners who can be released, and the COVID-19 situation in the locality they are likely to go.
The Bench said it would be permissible for a convicted prisoner to move an application for parole only after the superintendent has considered these factors and arrived at the opinion that there is a need to decongest the prison to curb the spread of COVID-19.
It said, “We are constrained to make the above observations for the reason that an impression has been created that a release on COVID-19 parole, is a matter of right, which it is not.”
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The Bench set aside the order and sent it back to the authorities suggesting fresh consideration of the convict’s application for parole.