Man seeks last moment parole extension to assist daughter in getting visa; HC says surrender, file fresh plea

Read Order: Baljinder Singh v. State of Punjab and others 

LE Staff

Chandigarh, August 16, 2021: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed a convict, seeking urgent extension of the parole granted to him in order to accompany his young daughter for getting a student visa, to first surrender and then file a fresh plea for the same. 

He was granted parole on June 17, 2021 for a period of 60 days upto August 13, 2021.  

During the hearing on August 13, the counsel for the petitioner pleaded before the High Court that his daughter wants to go abroad for further studies and the petitioner needs to accompany her for study visa because there is nobody else in his family. The urgency was that the petitioner was scheduled to surrender on the same day on completion of his parole.

The State counsel submitted that actually no application for extension of parole was moved before the concerned Superintendent Jail who is the competent authority to receive application for extension of parole and process the same. 

The HC noted that the State counsel further stated that in case the petitioner surrenders on the same day that his parole was getting over (August 13) and moves a fresh application for extension of parole, then it will not be considered as fresh parole and would be deemed to be an extension of the existing parole, if granted.

The bench of Justice Ajay Tewari and Justice Girish Agnihotri agreed with the state counsel and disposed of the petition.

The petitioner is serving sentence in a case pertaining to an FIR filed under sections 302 (murder), 427 (Mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code registered at Sadar Fazilka police station in Punjab.