Punjab & Haryana HC Refuses To Entertain PIL Challenging Gurmeet Ram Rahim's Parole; Govt To Decide Representation

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday refused to entertain a public interest litigation challenging the Dera Sacha Sauda Chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh's 40-day parole.The division bench of Chief Justice Ravi Shanker Jha and Justice Arun Palli dismissed Arora's petition as withdrawnArora had earlier moved the High Court through an ordinary writ plea challenging the 40-day parole - the plea was later on revised and re-filed as a PIL before the Court. In the fresh plea, Arora submitted that the Dera chief, who is undergoing imprisonment after having been convicted for the offence of rape and murder, was released in October from the Sunaria Jail at Rohtak on a 40-day parole, wherefrom he went to his Bhaghpat Ashram in Uttar Pradesh. The plea, which also prayed for quashing the provisions in Sections 3 and 12 of the Haryana Good Conduct Prisoners (Temporary Release) Act, 2002 – which envisages the facility of temporary release of a convicted prisoner on regular parole subject to certain conditions, stated that, "Gurmeet Singh @ Baba Ram Rahim is regularly conducting online/virtual satsang from his Dera in Bhagpat, UP, and is addressing his followers all over the world. He has also released a video containing his new song titled 'Sadi Nit Diwali,' and uploaded it on YouTube. All these activities are resulting into serious threat to peace in the neighbouring state of Punjab where the people opposed to Ram Rahim are sitting in dharnas outside dera's 'Nam Charcha Ghars.'" The plea added that, "during such online/virtual satsangs, Ram Rahim is resorting to his usual practice and is giving mantras to female followers for getting blessed with birth of a male child," which as per the plea was a violation of the Drugs and Magic Remedies Act, 1954.Arora in the PIL argued that the provisions of the 2002 Act confer powers on the competent authority to distribute "facility of parole like largesse". Arora had earlier sent a representation to Haryana's Chief Secretary Haryana demanding cancellation of parole granted to Ram Rahim and calling upon him to direct YouTube to delete the videos uploaded by him during his period of parole. He had received no reply from the government. During the hearing on Monday, the State of Haryana submitted that the representation dated 29.10.2022 will be decided within a period of one week. Satisfied with the undertaking given by the Haryana government, the petitioner withdrew the PIL. Case Title: H.C. Arora v. State of Haryana Citation: CWP-PIL-111-2022 Coram: Chief Justice Ravi Shanker Jha and Justice Arun PalliCitation: 2022 LiveLaw (PH) 295 Click Here To Read/Download the Order

Punjab & Haryana HC Refuses To Entertain PIL Challenging Gurmeet Ram Rahim's Parole; Govt To Decide Representation

Rahul Garg

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