Delhi High Court Registry Cites Staff Shortage As Reason For Delay In Communicating Parole Order To Jail

The Delhi High Court was recently informed by its Registry that release of two applicants from the prison was delayed as the parole orders were misplaced and could not be timely communicated to the jail authorities due to reduction in the staff strength.

The submission was made before Justice Manoj Kumar Ohri during hearing of bail applications moved by Nazim Khan and Iqbal.

Mr. HK Arora, Registrar (Criminal) of the Delhi High Court, informed that the concerned dealing officer had been warned to be careful in the future.

In the previous hearing, it was informed to the Court that while orders for custody parole were passed, it was not complied with as the respective orders were not communicated to the Jail authorities in time. Accordingly, the Court had directed the DIG (Prisons) to file an affidavit and the Registry to file an explanation.

The DIG (Prisons), Mr. M.T. Kom, stated that, as per jail records, the orders were passed on 12.07.2021 and 13.07.2021 but were communicated to the concerned jail authority after a delay of almost four days on 15.07.2021 and 16.07.2021. Therefore, because of the delay, the order of parole for enabling the applicants to participate in the mother's death ceremony could not be complied with.

The DIG(Prisons) further stated that it was not the intention of the jail authorities to disobey the directions of the Court; rather, the default was the only on account of lack of timely communication. He also stated that to release the inmate on bail, the Jail authorities are not insisting on the physical copy of the bail order.

The Registrar(Criminal) told the Court that due to reduction in the staff strength, the dockets of the orders were misplaced and for which reason, the orders could  not be timely communicated to the jail authorities. He submitted that the concerned dealing officer has been warned to remain careful in future.

While taking the explanation offered on record, the Court directed the Registry to take all the necessary corrective steps so that such default does not recur in the future.

Advocate Bharat Singh, appearing for the applicants, sought leave to withdraw the application, and thus, both the applications were dismissed as withdrawn.

On a related note, the Supreme Court has taken suo motu cognizance of the issue of delay in release of prisoners from prisons after the grant of bail by courts.  This was was prompted by a recent news report which stated that the convicts lodged in Agra Central Jail have not been released even after 3 days of the order granting them bail.

Taking suo motu cognizance of the issue, the bench led by the CJI observed that the Supreme Court was thinking of implementing a system to electronically transmit bail orders to prisons so that the release of prisoners on bail will not be delayed.

The CJI said that the Supreme Court is contemplating to adopt the procedure termed as FASTER : Fast and Secured Transmission of Electronic Records System, for transmission of authenticated copies of the Judgments, final orders, interim orders to the concerned Courts and Tribunals.

"This is too much", the Chief Justice of India NV Ramana had said, expressing exasperation at the insistence of prison authorities on receipt of bail orders by post in this age of information technology.

"In this age of information and communication technology, we are still looking at the skies for the pigeons to communicate the orders", the CJI  had exclaimed.

Case Title: Nazim Khan v. Government of NCT Delhi 

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