Bombay High Court Orders 7 Days Jail For Prison Superintendent For Denying Emergency Parole To Eligible Prisoners
The Bombay High Court found Anupkumar M. Kumre, the Superintendent of Central Prison in Nagpur, guilty of contempt and sentenced him to seven days in jail for denying detainees emergency parole during the Covid pandemic.
“If the Court finds that the Government’s (officials) action in rejecting a prisoner’s request for parole has the effect of suffocating Articles 14 and 21 of the Indian Constitution, the Court must act to restore the rule of law and respect the prisoners’ residuary fundamental rights,” the court stated.
Kumre’s apology rejected by a division bench of Justices VM Deshpande and Amit Borkar, who fined him Rs. 5,000 and deferred his sentence for 10 weeks, giving him time to appeal to the Supreme Court.
The superintendent denied 35 poor inmates their; remaining fundamental right to emergency parole, and the majority of them couldn’t afford to appeal.
The Superintendent violated a judicial precedent in Milind Ashok Patil and Ors versus State of Maharashtra 41 times on purpose. The court decided that; a prisoner might be freed on emergency parole even though he not released on parole twice previously.
As long as he submitted in a timely manner whenever he released.
Hanuman Pendam, a prisoner, petitioned the HC to overturn Kumre’s rejection of emergency release. Kumre said that; Pendam’s request denied because; he failed to surrender after being released earlier, only to backtrack a few days later and explain that; the inmate sent for a covid-test.
The bench stated that its main issue was the court’s selective application of binding precedent, which harmed the prisoners’ liberty and undermined the rule of law.
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