Bombay HC Strikes Down Maharashtra Prison Rule Mandating One-Year Jail Term For Parole Eligibility

Mumbai, May 21: The Bombay High Court has struck down a provision in the Maharashtra Prisons (Furlough and Parole) Rules, 2024, which required prisoners to complete one year of actual imprisonment before becoming eligible for regular parole, holding that the condition was arbitrary and violative of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution.

A bench of Justice Madhav Jamdar and Justice Pravin Patil, sitting at the Kolhapur bench of the high court, was hearing a petition filed by a convict sentenced to one year’s imprisonment under the Negotiable Instruments Act.

The petitioner had sought parole leave, but prison authorities refused to process the application on the ground that Rule 14(1) of the 2024 Rules mandated completion of one year of imprisonment before a prisoner could apply for regular parole.

HC says rule had no rational basis

The court examined Rules 12, 13 and 14 of the 2024 Rules and noted that parole may be granted for reasons such as serious illness of a spouse or close relatives, childbirth, natural calamities affecting the prisoner’s family, marriages of children or siblings, and funeral rites of relatives.

The bench observed that the one-year imprisonment condition had no rational nexus with the objectives behind granting parole. It held that if a prisoner’s family member was seriously ill or affected by a natural calamity, there was no justification to deny consideration of parole merely because the prisoner had not completed one year in jail.

Relying on a three-judge bench judgment in another case, the HC reiterated that parole is not merely an administrative concession but a limited legal right available to prisoners subject to statutory conditions.

“...the prohibition of one year of actual imprisonment provided in Rule 14 of the Rules of 2024 is violative of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India and is ultra vires the grounds/objectives stated in Rule 14 of the Rules of 2024,” the bench observed.

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Court emphasises humanitarian purpose of parole

The HC further noted that parole provisions are based on a humanistic approach intended to help prisoners maintain family and social ties and aid their reintegration into society.

Accordingly, it declared the phrase “on completion of one year of actual imprisonment” in Rule 14(1) unconstitutional and struck it down.

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