- (1.) The Court: The petitioner in this art.226 petition dated April 16, 2010 is aggrieved by the fact that his application for release on parole dated December 10, 2009, Annexure P3 at p.63, has not yet been disposed of.
(2.) The petitioner was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. At the date he submitted the application for release on parole he served sentence for 11 years 5 months 15 days. During trial he was in custody for 2 years 10 months 5 days. He requested release on parole so that he might see his ailing mother and stay with her for 30 days. The admitted position is that the application has not yet been disposed of. Counsel for the state submits that the Commissioner of Police, Kolkata has not submitted a very favourable inquiry report (at p.76). Counsel for the petitioner submits that the provisions of s.62 of the West Bengal Correctional Services Act, 1992, empowering the Inspector General of Correctional Services to release a prisoner on parole, do not require an inquiry report from the commissioner of police. It seems to me that the application of the petitioner has been kept pending for an unreasonable period. In the absence of any statutory period within which the application was to be disposed of, the authority empowered to decide it was required to give his decision within a reasonable period; and in view of the fact that the petitioner requested for release on parole so that he might see his ailing mother and stay with her for some time, in my opinion, the reasonable 2 period could not be more than a week from the date the application was submitted.
(3.) The authority keeping the application pending for such a long time has taken a great risk in that his decision ultimately to release the petitioner on parole could become absolutely useless. The petitioner 's mother is ailing. This fact the authority completely ignored. In my opinion, this is a case of gross inaction on the part of the statutory authority. I think purpose of justice will be served if the petition is disposed of directing the s.62 authority to decide the application within a week.;