Delhi High Court Directs Jail Authorities To Provide Written Surrender Date To Convicts On Parole Or Furlough To Prevent Ambiguity

A Bench of Justice Girish Kathpalia, noted, “Earlier also, in few cases it has been observed that on account of illiteracy and ignorance, many a time the convict released on parole or furlough fails to surrender back in time and the delayed surrender leads to punishment, with its consequential effects.”

The Court held, “In all those cases, directions are being issued by this Court to the Jail Authorities to inform to the convicts at the time of their release on parole or furlough, a specific date in writing by which they have to surrender. In this regard, instead of a bald statement on behalf of the Jail Authorities that they had informed the convict about the date of surrender, it would be appropriate that a written note of date of surrender is handed over to the convict at the time of releasing him on parole or furlough after taking his acknowledgement on a copy of the said written note, so that there is no ambiguity.”

Advocate Satyam Thareja appeared for the Petitioner.

A petition was filed by a convict challenging the rejection of his application for furlough, wherein he had sought release for a period of three weeks. His request had been turned down by the jail authorities on the grounds that he had allegedly overstayed during a previous parole and had been punished with a warning. As per jail rules, such punishment disqualifies a convict from availing furlough for a period of one year.

However, the Court found no credible evidence on record to establish that the petitioner was specifically informed of his surrender date at the time of his earlier release on parole.

The Court ruled in favour of the petitioner and ordered that he be released on his first spell of furlough for three weeks.

Cause Title: Mohd Alam v. State of NCT Of Delhi, [2025:DHC:6065]

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