Delhi HC judge holds court on Sunday, grants parole to 1997 gangrape convict

However, his sister passed away from a heart attack at 8 am on Sunday; she was suffering from post-tuberculosis lung complications. His 81-year old mother was left alone as her sole caretaker was his sister.

The convict, through his lawyer Sarthak Maggon, filed an application seeking immediate parole on Sunday morning. His sister’s last rites are scheduled for 5 pm Sunday at a graveyard at Mayur Vihar, leaving him with mere hours to attend to it.

The urgency was conveyed to Justice Sanjeev Narula, who was seized of the convict’s matter already through the judge’s court master on Sunday morning, telephonically. The matter was registered and listed.

Around noon, Justice Narula assembled his court, sitting remotely with court staff, police and counsel joining the proceedings virtually.

The police informed the court that they have verified the details of the convict’s sister’s death and have no objection if his main prayer — seeking parole for four weeks — is granted as well.

Within minutes, Justice Narula, dictating the order virtually, granted the convict parole for four weeks. The judge took note of Tasleem’s situation, where he has “to perform last rites and be with the family in this critical hour”.

By 12.50 pm, the Delhi HC’s order was conveyed to the Tihar jail authorities through email by Tasleem’s counsel. Maggon, however, claimed that as of 4 pm, Tasleem had not been released from jail.

The convict’s case

Tasleem was convicted in a gangrape offence from 1997. He was sentenced to life imprisonment by a trial court in 1999. The Delhi HC upheld the conviction in 2015, and the SC dismissed his appeal in 2017.

With his applications before the Sentence Review Board seeking premature release rejected solely on the ground of heinousness of the offence, he moved the Delhi HC with a plea in February this year, seeking its direction for his premature release.

With regard to Tasleem’s plea seeking early release, Justice Sanjeev Narula, in an order last month on October 8, had directed the Director General of Tihar Prisons and Home Secretary of the Delhi government to appear personally before the court.

The direction was to secure “accountability”, after recording that the court has not seen any progress from prison authorities with respect to directions the Delhi HC had issued with regard to standardising the functioning of the Sentence Review Boards, and the Boards’ continued dealing of matters of convicts before them in a “superficial and perfunctory manner”.

Justice Narula made the observation in the October 8 order. He said that the absence of a consistent framework, that the Boards appear to be using in deciding applications under remission policy, “fails to disclose any coherent institutional mechanism or monitoring process to translate the Court’s directives into practice”.

Notably, Tasleem’s social investigation report — one of the assessments considered by the SRB while deciding premature release/remission applications — records his jail conduct as “good and satisfactory”.

It also notes that he “has worked upon himself through active participation in prison rehabilitation programs (as a factory worker) and has responsibly attempted to maintain his family.” It also recorded that Tasleem “observed exemplary conduct while on furlough on 13 occasions, which was increased through emergency parole”.