Govt amends policy for premature release of prisoners

Punjab government has decided not to consider grant of parole or remissions to convicts on the basis of panchayatnams signed by former and current sarpanches but on the basis of panchayatnamas signed by gram panchayats.

While amending its old policy on pre-mature release of prisoners,the Punjab government has decided not to consider grant of parole or remissions to convicts on the basis of panchayatnams signed by former and current sarpanches but on the basis of panchayatnamas signed by gram panchayats.

The government told this to the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday during the resumed hearing of a PIL filed by Advocate H C Arora. An affidavit in regard to the amendment was filed by M R Aggarwal,Special Secretary to Punjab,Department of Home Affairs and Justice.

According to the amendments introduced in the policy,if the convict maintains good conduct during the last five paroles and there is no adverse report against him,his case for pre-mature release can be considered. In such a case,report of village sarpanch (panchayatnama) is not necessary. Moreover,in case a verification report from the concerned district magistrate,district senior superintendent of police is not received within a month,it will be presumed that they have no objection to the pre-mature release of the convict. Further,convicts who are 80 years of age or above will be considered for relaxation in their sentence.

Also,no premature release case will be considered before the expiry of actual imprisonment of 18 or 20 years with remissions in cases of murder of an elected representative ,murder of a public servant in connection with the discharge of his official duty .

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