The Karnataka High Court, while granting a 7-Day furlough to a man , has said that the convict does not lose all of its liberty and dignity when put behind the bars . The court observed that :
“A convict has to keep in contact with the civil society although sporadically, so that his societal roots, do not dry up when he languishes in the jail; otherwise, when he returns from the prison after completing the term of sentence, he may be a total stranger and life may prove hard to him; this is not a happy thing to happen in a Welfare State,” the bench said.
The furlough was granted to a man Azad Pasha for him to attend the marriage of his daughter.
A single judge Bench of Justice Krishna S Dixit , pointed that these matters should be dealt with a humanitarian approach. In this case , a writ petition was filed for the release of Azad Pasha , for 30 days to attend his daughter’s marriage.
So, the court while granting a relief stated that , there are many Muslim marriage rituals which are performed by the father and even otherwise if one’s daughter is getting married the presence of father is a humanistic desire and this can be covered as a humanitarian consideration under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution.
“The provisions of parole/furlough are structured on humanistic grounds for the reprieve of those lodged in jails for long; the main purpose of releasing a serving convict on parole is to afford to him an opportunity to solve his personal and family problems and to enable him to maintain his links with the civil society; there may be cases of health grounds too,” the court stressed.
In view of the above, the authorities are directed to
release the petitioner on furlough, subject to usual
precautions, for a period of seven days .
Case : Abdul Rehman v. State of Karnataka.
WRIT PETITION NO. 18712 OF 2023.
Written By : Vidhi Mahajan , a BALLB student of Guru Nanak Dev University , Amritsar and a Legal Intern under Legal Vidhiya.
