Amar Ugarsen Bharadwaj vs. State NCT of Delhi
Background
A convicted prisoner's request for temporary parole, to allow him to personally handle the filing of a Special Leave Petition before the Supreme Court, had been rejected by jail authorities citing a Delhi Prisons Rule restricting such parole.
Decision Breakdown
The State's counsel did not oppose the petition, pointing to an existing precedent of the High Court (Jaswinder Singh v. State of NCT of Delhi) that had already dealt with this exact situation. Following that reasoning, the Court set aside the refusal and directed the petitioner's release on parole for four weeks, subject to a personal bond and surety, keeping the local police informed of his contact details and requiring him to hand over a copy of the SLP to the jail superintendent upon his return, with no extension of parole permitted.
Lesson Learnt
Prisoners are not automatically barred from short-term parole to pursue legitimate legal remedies such as filing an appeal before a higher court, provided reasonable safeguards (bond, surety, restrictions on contact, fixed duration) are imposed.