New Delhi, Dec 23 (IANS) The Delhi High Court Wednesday directed Delhi Police and the Delhi government to attend to parole pleas quickly and not to be selective about them.
Justice Kailash Gambhir after seeing the status report of the Delhi Police wherein only nine parole pleas of undertrials are pending said, “Before the court’s direction police and ministry was not giving due attention on the parole pleas. It is also noted that selective pleas were disposed of but other applications were lying pending for considerable period of time.”

“It is now directed that as soon as parole pleas is received police and ministry will take necessary steps to decide the application of the convict. The Commissioner of police is also directed to see verification is carried out in a time bound manner without causing any delay,” the court said while disposing of the petition.

Delhi Police Counsel Meera Bhatia assured the court that the pending nine pleas will be disposed of within 20 working days.

The court was hearing the plea of former constable Sumer Singh, who is undergoing life imprisonment for his involvement in the Connaught Place shootout case in which two businessmen were shot dead by a police squad after being mistaken as gangsters of Uttar Pradesh. Sumer Singh has sought three months’ parole for arranging funds for filing an appeal in the apex court challenging his conviction.

As per law, a prisoner can get parole for various reasons - to visit a dying or sick family member, building a house or to repair a badly damaged home, among others.

The official process on a parole application starts with its verification by police and the plea to be finally cleared, in case of Delhi, by the lieutenant-governor.