Speculative Fear Of Village Rivalry No Ground To Deny Parole, Law & Order Manageable Through Conditions: Rajasthan High Court

The Rajasthan High Court has held that possibility of inter-se tensions between the parties or a perceived threat could not, by itself, be a determinative factor for denying parole, especially when the applicant's conduct in jail was reported to be satisfactory. The bench of Justice Farjand Ali observed that maintenance of law and order is a continuous obligation of the State and such concerns could be addressed by imposing suitable conditions on the applicant during the parole period. The Court was hearing a petition by a convict whose application for first parole was rejected by the Parole Advisory Committee (“Committee”) based on the adverse opinion provided by the police authorities. After hearing the contentions, the Court perused the minutes of the Committee's meeting, which revealed that as per the report from the Superintendent of police, petitioner's conduct was found to be satisfactory. However, it was opined that the petitioner and complainant belonged to the same village and there existed continuous animosity between the two sides. It was recorded in the report, “…the Garasiya tribal community there is a prevailing practice of retaliatory action, and that release of the petitioner on parole may lead to confrontation between the parties, resulting in breach of peace and disturbance of law and order. Apprehension has also been expressed regarding threat to the life of the petitioner himself upon his release.”In the background of this report by the police authorities, the Committee rejected the application. The Court observed that apprehensions in the report were general and predictive in nature, rather than fact based. It did not disclose any specific incident or concrete material to suggest that if the petitioner were to be released on parole, he was likely to misuse liberty or disturb public order. “Parole being an important instrument of reformation and social reintegration, denial thereof on the basis of speculative apprehensions would defeat the object underlying its grant.”Accordingly, making the above observations, the petition was allowed, and the petitioner was directed to be released on parole. Title: Govaram v State of Rajasthan & Ors. Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (Raj) 77Click Here To Read/Download Order

Speculative Fear Of Village Rivalry No Ground To Deny Parole, Law & Order Manageable Through Conditions: Rajasthan High Court

Nupur Agrawal

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