JODHPUR: The Rajasthan high court has directed Rajasthan State Legal Services Authority, director general of prisons and the state of Rajasthan to prepare a computerised database of convicts lodged in all the prisons.
The database will include details like the date of arrest, sentence served, jail punishment, if any, period of abscondance and if any paroles granted. The court has sought compliance report to be submitted for perusal on September 14.
The court also directed that a prominent signboard shall be installed at the entrance of all central jails in the state displaying in Hindi the gist of Rule 10 of the Rajasthan Prisoners Release on Parole Rules, 2021. It shall be the duty of the superintendent of jail concerned to inform all eligible prisoners of their right to be considered for being released on parole as soon as their cause becomes ripe.
The division bench of justice Sandeep Mehta and justice Manoj Kumar Garg came up with this direction in pursuance of a matter wherein the petitioner was granted parole after serving 14 years of his jail term.
While hearing the case, the bench specifically stated that it has come across numerous cases wherein convicts have been languishing in jails for prolonged periods with inability to avail the facility of parole because of poverty/ illiteracy and other trivial issues, thereby frustrating the spirit of the welfare legislation.
“It is indeed a pathetic state of affairs that the convict petitioner herein has been granted first parole after serving imprisonment of 14 years,” the court said.
The convict petitioner, Rakesh, has been undergoing life imprisonment at the Open Air Camp, Barmer, and has served imprisonment of over 14 years.
