Conviction For Committing Sexual Offences No Ground For Denying Benefit Of Furlough: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court has ruled that conviction for committing sexual offences is no ground for denying the benefit of furlough to an otherwise eligible prisoner.

“In this Court’s opinion, merely because a person has been convicted for committing sexual offences, he cannot be denied benefit of furlough, which he is otherwise eligible for, on such erroneous grounds,” Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma said.

The court made the observation while granting furlough of 21 days to one Gopi Nisha Mallah who was convicted in a POCSO case and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2018.

Mallah sought quashing of an order passed by the Delhi Government on September 04 rejecting his plea for being released on furlough. He sought furlough for a period of three weeks on the ground of maintaining social ties with family and friends.

The court noted that as per Mallah’s nominal roll, he had remained in judicial custody for about 09 years and 07 months, with remission earned of 01 year and 08 months.

“As per records, the petitioner earlier been granted interim bail on two occasions during the course of trial and this Court had also granted him parole for a period of 06 weeks from 18.02.2019 to 12.04.2019, and there is no report of any misuse of liberty of interim bail or parole or any complaint of late surrender,” the court noted further.

Justice Sharma also noted that Mallah’s conduct in jail for last one year as well as the overall conduct has always been satisfactory and no misconduct was ever reported.

“In such circumstances, this Court cannot reject the prayer of the petitioner who seeks grant of furlough for maintaining social ties with his friends and family, and accordingly, the present petition is allowed and the impugned order dated 04.09.2023 passed by the respondent is set aside,” the court said.

Counsel for Petitioner: Mr. Faraz Maqbool, DHCLSC

Counsel for Respondent: Mr. Anand V. Khatri, Additional Standing Counsel (Crl.) for GNCTD/State

Title: GOPI NISHA MALLAH v. STATE OF NCT OF DELHI

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Del) 1094

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