Punjab and Haryana High Court lifts bar on award of parole to Gurmeet Slam Rahim

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday said that the Haryana government would be allowed to concede parole under Haryana Acceptable conduct Detainees (Impermanent Delivery) Act, 2022, to Dera Sacha Sauda Boss and assault and murder convict Gurmeet Smash Rahim Singh [Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Advisory group v. Province of Haryana and others].

The High Court had in February this year limited the State from giving parole to Dera Chief without its consent.

With Friday’s structure, the bar on award of parole/leave of absence to Smash Rahim by prior request has successfully been lifted.

A division bench of Boss Chief Sheel Nagu and Equity Anil Kshetarpal today discarded the request moved by Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Council (SGPC) in 2023 against supposed abuse of regulation in award of impermanent delivery to Dera Chief.

The Court on Friday decided that the State had properly applied the Haryana Acceptable conduct Detainees (Brief Delivery) Act, 2022 to allow advantage to the Dera Chief.

“It is completely clear that the Demonstration of 2022 has appropriately been applied by the Province of Haryana while considering and concluding the utilization of parole documented by respondent No.9.”

It dismissed the contention that Haryana Appropriate conduct Detainees (Impermanent Delivery) Act, 1988 ought to have been applied in Slam Rahim’s case.

The Court additionally addressed why it ought to abide upon the benefits of the matter when the time of parole of 40 days conceded to him was over in March 2023 itself.

“Undisputedly, respondent No.9 has since given up and is held up in prison. However the Territory of Haryana in its reaction has outfitted information depicting different periods and the dates on which the advantage of impermanent delivery was stretched out to respondent No.9 yet this Court abstains from considering the reasonability of these brief deliveries since the reason for challenge to Annexure P-1 has become infructuous because of the expiry of time of parole allowed vide Annexure P-1,” the Court said.