NEW DELHI: The Bombay High Court has granted parole to a man to bid farewell to his son, who is going to Australia for further studies, holding that if parole can be granted to share grief, it can also be granted for a happy occasion. The court stated that conditional release for a brief period is allowed for convicts to maintain contact with the outside world and to manage their family affairs, as even behind bars, a convict remains someone’s son, husband, father, or brother.
A bench of Justices Bharati Dangre and Manjusha Deshpande noted that the provisions of parole and furlough have been viewed as a “humanistic approach” towards convicts.
The division bench was hearing a petition filed by Vivek Shrivastav seeking parole to arrange tuition fees and other expenses for his son’s education at an Australian university and to bid farewell to him.
The prosecution opposed the plea, arguing that parole is normally granted in emergency situations and that arranging money for education and bidding farewell to a son are not valid grounds for parole.
The court expressed its disagreement with the prosecution’s reasoning.
“Grief is an emotion, so is happiness, and if parole can be granted to share grief, why not to share a happy occasion or moment,” the bench stated.’
It further noted that if parole can be granted to celebrate a marriage, the same benefit should be extended to the petitioner, who needs it to arrange tuition fees for his son’s foreign education and to bid him farewell. Consequently, the court granted Shrivastav parole for ten days.
Shrivastav was convicted in a 2012 murder case and is serving a life sentence. He was convicted in 2018 and filed an appeal in the High Court against his conviction in 2019.