In the case of Manga v. State of Punjab & Ors, Justice G.S. Sandhawalia stated that, parole is reformative process, whereby a convict is reintroduced to normal life and thereby asked the District Magistrate to reconsider the matter within a period of 4 weeks. The observations made in the case of Bansi Lal v. State of Punjab, 2016 (4) RCR (Criminal) 101, were discussed while deciding the current case.
In the abovementioned case, a criminal writ petition was filed challenging the order of the Deputy Commissioner-cum-District Magistrate, Kapurthala which stated that a grant of parole for six weeks was rejected by the lower court. It was rejected by citing an apprehension that the Petitioner who had been convicted under the NDPS Act, may resort to the business of sale of intoxicants as 4 more cases of similar nature were pending against him.
Disagreeing with this view, the Court in the current case held that the statutory power to release a prisoner on parole or furlough is to be exercised objectively, keeping in view the intention of the legislature and the purpose of admitting a prisoner to parole.
