Sitting amid the blackened remains of his home, 32-year-old Nikesh Gawali carefully broke open a half-melted plastic box with a screwdriver. His hands shook slightly, not out of fear, but out of hope. “I’m trying to find my daughter Aarti’s gold earrings,” he said quietly, still focused on the box. “She’s just five. I got them made recently after months of labour work.” The plastic box, warped and blackened by heat, was one of the few things left from his two-room house on the outskirts of Dhamangaon village . All around him lay ash, broken tin sheets and charred wooden beams. The walls had cracked under the heat and the front room’s tin roof had caved in completely. What remained was a blackened debris all around - almost nothing to suggest a home once stood there. Nikesh earns his living as an agricultural labourer, like many in the village. Work is uncertain and depends on the season. Those earrings weren’t just jewellery - they were a small dream, a reward for his hard work,...
Highlighting importance of furlough, the Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court said that furlough is necessary to avoid ill-effects of continuous prison life. The Court also slammed on Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Prison, Nagpur for passing stereotyped orders while rejecting furlough applications and ordered concerned officer to pay the costs of the writ petition with High Court Legal Services Sub-Committee, Nagpur.
“It is the duty of the DIG Prison to exercise his power and discharge his duties by carefully considering all relevant facts and circumstances and the applicable Rules,” the Division bench of Justice Sunil Shukre and Justice M W Chandwani stated in the order, while allowing furlough application of convict Mohd Sagir Bashir Chauhan (60), Presently at Central Prison, Amravati.
Mohd Sagir filed a Criminal Writ Petition challenging the order dated January 31, 2018 passed by the DIG, Prison, Nagpur rejecting his application for grant of furlough leave for a period of 28 days. The Court took into account past conduct of the petitioner and ruled in favour of the petitioner.
Mohd Sagir was released by the authority on furlough on six occasions in the past in 2008, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2019 and 2021. On each of the occasions, the petitioner had surrendered himself to the Jail Authority on due date. The Jail Authority denied his furlough application citing some reasons. The Court observed the reasons are stereotyped and generalized.
“The principle object of grant of furlough is to enable the prisoner to have family association and to avoid ill-effects of continuous prison life. This view has been reiterated in several other judgments of this Court. Thus, the object of Rules relating to grant of furlough to a prisoner is to enable him to communicate himself with his family members intermittently, so that he does not lose his sense of sociability and either becomes a distressed and disturbed man or develops into a hardened criminal. Both these states are dangerous to the welfare of the society,” the court said.
The Court further stated that whenever, such mechanical orders are passed, inconvenience to the petitioner, delay in finally disposing of such matters and putting additional burden on the State exchequer because of the requirement of the prisoner being provided with Legal Aid at the State expense for challenging the order come as inevitable consequences and casualty of justice follows, which can be avoided.
“We are, therefore, of the view that the sanctioning Authority under the Prisons Rules, 1959 must ensure to exercise due care and caution in deciding applications for furlough leave, while keeping in view the settled principles of law,” the court said.
Adv Sumit Joshi, (Appointed) appeared for the petitioner while APP S M Ghodeswar represented the prison department.
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