New parole guidelines after Manu Sharma fiasco

New Delhi: In the backdrop of the controversy of Delhi government’s grant of parole to Jessica Lall murder convict Manu Sharma, the Central Government on Wednesday submitted to Delhi High Court a set of fresh guidelines for granting parole.

As per the guidelines, the prisoners involved in heinous crimes and whose release on parole is likely to have serious repercussion elsewhere in the country cannot be granted parole.

Filing its drafted guidelines before a Division Bench of Chief Justice AP Shah and Justice S Muralidhar, Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam told the Bench that “the prisoners who are considered dangerous or have been involved in serious offence like assault, outbreak of mutiny will not be granted parole”.

Subramaniam denied the allegations that the Government grants parole to rich prisoners and ignores the applications of poor.

Giving details about the new guidelines, he said the proposed guidelines suggested that those prisoners who were suffering from mental illness would not be given parole if not certified by the jail medical officer.

However, the Government will grant parole or custody parole to those prisoners 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, said the counsel.

Subramaniam said a prisoner can be granted parole for the delivery of his wife in case of absence of any other family member to take care of her.

The Congress government in Delhi had come under flak for granting parole to Sharma, son of powerful Haryana politician Venode Sharma, even while appeals by other prisoners for such relief were pending.

According to the guidelines, parole period should not exceed the time limit of a month and the Government would keep in mind a gap of at least six months before granting a second parole to the prisoner.

The matter is likely to be heard in the court on Thursday.

Earlier, the Bench had allegedly taken exception to the Government's grant of parole to Sharma undergoing life term for killing model Jessica Lall in 1999, without following the proper procedure of law.

The Bench had sought the Government guidelines while granting parole to the prisoners.