- (1.) THIS writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India has been filed by Sanjay Jain @ Nawab, who, following his conviction under Section 302 of the I.P.C., is serving sentence of life imprisonment awarded by learned Special Judge (Sati Niwaran) and Additional Sessions Judge, Jaipur City, Jaipur, vide judgment dated 16.03.2012 in Sessions Case No.17/2006. Appeal filed by him against aforesaid judgment of conviction and sentence, being Criminal Appeal No.313/2012, is pending before this Court for decision.
(2.) ON the last date of hearing, learned Advocate General was called upon to address the court on the question whether the Rajasthan Prisoners Release on Parole Rules, 1958 would be applicable to prisoners serving their sentence, whose appeals against conviction are pending before this court? Shri B.R. Choudhary, learned counsel for petitioner argued that petitioner is in jail ever since his initial arrest because during trial also he was not on bail. He continues to be in jail even after his conviction. He has thus served as many as six years of sentence. His conduct inside the jail and behaviour with the inmates has been exemplary and unblemished. No complaint about his conduct has been received by the jail authorities. He is, therefore, entitled to be released on first regular parole of twenty days in accordance with Rule 9 of the Rajasthan Prisoner Release on Parole Rules, 1958 (for short, 'the Rules of 1958'). Petitioner applied for his release on first parole under the Rules of 1958 to the District Parole Advisory Committee, Jaipur, which, however, vide its resolution dated 16.07.2012, decided not to grant parole to petitioner on flimsy and mechanical ground of adverse report sent by the police.
(3.) LEARNED counsel for petitioner submitted that respondents in reply to writ petition have relied on Division Bench judgment of this court in Umesh Kumar Singh @ Munna Singh Vs. The State of Rajasthan 2012 (3) WLC (Raj.) 739 to argue that those convicts, whose appeals against conviction are still pending before this court, are not entitled to be released on parole. Accordingly, the Director General (Prisons) has issued a Circular No.18324-60 dated 26.07.2012 and the Additional chief Secretary (Home) also issued a Circular No.Pa.8(1)/Home-12/Pri./2007 dated 30.08.2012 inconformity with aforesaid Division Bench judgment of this court in Umesh Kumar Singh. Shri B.R. Choudhary, learned counsel for petitioner, further submitted that aforesaid Division Bench judgment of this court does not law down correct law inasmuch as it has not followed previous two Division Bench judgments of this Court in Bhanwar Lal Godara and Others Vs. State of Rajasthan and Others 2005 (1) WLC (Raj.) 93 and Gani Khan Vs. State of Rajasthan 2010 (1) Cr.L.R. (Raj.) 378, whereby two different Division Benches respectively at the principle seat at Jodhpur and bench at Jaipur, held that even when appeal filed by a convict prisoner against his conviction is pending and his application for suspension of sentence has been rejected, he can still be granted parole provided he has completed 1/4th of his sentence with remission.;