Arbitrarily Denying Convict Emergency Leave To Attend Brother's Son's Marriage Violates Articles 14 & 15: Kerala High Court

The Kerala High Court recently held that there cannot be any discrimination between the children of the brother and those of the sister of a convict while granting emergency leave to attend their marriage.Dr. Justice Kauser Edappagath noted that almost all the Jail Superintendents in the State have been rejecting applications for emergency leaves of convicts to attend their brother's children's marriage.The plea before the Court was filed by the nephew of a convict undergoing life imprisonment at Kannur Central prison. The petitioner came before the High Court after his application to the Jail Superintendent seeking ten days' emergency leave for his uncle to attend his marriage was not considered.The Court noted that the Malayalam words for 'direct nephew' and 'direct niece' falling under Rule 400(1)(ii) of the Kerala Prisons and Correctional Services (Management) Rules, 2014 were being wrongly interpreted to include only a sister's son and daughter. Such an interpretation, it opined, was violative of Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution.Rule 400 is the provision granting emergency leave to a well behaved convicted prisoner in certain exceptional circumstances, one of which, provided under clause (1)(ii), is to attend the marriage of son, daughter, brother and sister, grandson, granddaughter, brother-in law, sister-in-law, direct nephew, direct niece.“There cannot be any discrimination between the sister's children and the brother's children. Exclusion of the convict's brother's son or daughter from the purview of Rule 400 (1)(ii) would amount to violation of Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution of India. Hence, I hold that emergency leave can be granted to the convict, invoking Rule 400(1)(ii) of the Rules, to attend the marriage of not only the convict's sister's son or daughter, but also the convict's brother's son or daughter as well, subject to the conditions in sub-rule (1) of Rule 400.”Thus, the Court allowed the plea. It also directed the Registry to forward a copy of the judgment to the Jail Superintendents of all prisons in the State.Case No: W.P.(Crl.) No. 1750 of 2025Case Title: Shaduli P.M. v. State of Kerala and Ors.Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (Ker) 8Counsel for the petitioner: Subash Chandran, Kavitha K.T., Ahalya Prakash K.V., Hamdan Mansoor K.Counsel for the respondents: E.C. Bineesh - Sr. Public ProsecutorClick to Read/Download Judgment

Arbitrarily Denying Convict Emergency Leave To Attend Brother's Son's Marriage Violates Articles 14 & 15: Kerala High Court

K. Salma Jennath

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