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What Exactly Are The Grounds For Parole And Furlough, This Supreme Court Precedent May Help You Decide

The Hon’ble Supreme Court in Asfaq v. State of Rajasthan and Ors. (2017 INSC 884) elaborately defined parole and furlough, types of parole based on the State Guidelines, and set out a number of differences between parole and furlough. Through this judgement, the Court also set out the guidelines on what conditions the applications for parole be decided. The Court through this judgment expressly held that mere heinous and aggravated nature of offence alone can not be the ground for rejection of an application for parole. The reformative theory of criminology mandates that all individuals irrespective of the nature of their crimes and conviction should be given a chance to maintain their social and family ties and re-establish their relationship in the society. Also, such legal remedies reduce the growth tendency of recidivism in the convicted person after being released.

Parole: A parole can be defined as conditional release of prisoners i.e. an early release of a prisoner, conditional on good behaviour and regular reporting to the authorities for a set period of time. It can also be defined as a form of conditional pardon by which the convict is released before the expiration of his term.

Thus, the parole is granted for good behaviour on the condition that parolee regularly reports to a supervising officer for a specified period. Such a release of the prisoner on parole can also be temporarily on some basic grounds.

In that eventuality, it is to be treated as mere suspension of the sentence for time being, keeping the quantum of sentence intact. Release on parole is designed to afford some relief to the prisoners in certain specified exigencies. Such paroles are normally granted in certain situations some of which may be as follows:

  1. a member of the prisoner's family has died or is seriously ill or the prisoner himself is seriously ill; or
  2. the marriage of the prisoner himself, his son, daughter, grandson, grand-daughter, brother, sister, sister's son or daughter is to be celebrated; or
  3. the temporary release of the prisoner is necessary for ploughing, sowing or harvesting or carrying on any other agricultural operation of his land or his father's undivided land actually in possession of the prisoner; or
  4. it is desirable to do so for any other sufficient cause;
  5. parole can be granted only after a portion of sentence is already served;
  6. if conditions of parole are not abided by the parolee he may be returned to serve his sentence in prison, such conditions may be such as those of committing a new offence; and
  7. parole may also be granted on the basis of aspects related to health of convict himself.

Guidelines of some of the States stipulate two kinds of paroles, namely, custody parole and regular parole.

‘Custody parole’ is generally granted in emergent circumstances like:

  1. death of a family member;
  2. marriage of a family member;
  3. serious illness of a family member; or
  4. any other emergent circumstances.

As far as ‘Regular parole’ is concerned, it may be given in the following cases:

  1. serious illness of a family member;
  2. critical conditions in the family on account of accident or
  3. death of a family member;
  4. marriage of any member of the family of the convict;
  5. delivery of a child by the wife of the convict if there is no other family member to take care of the spouse at home;
  6. serious damage to life or property of the family of the convict including damage caused by natural calamities;
  7. to maintain family and social ties;
  8. to pursue the filing of a special leave petition before this Court against a judgment delivered by the High Court convicting or upholding the conviction, as the case may be.

Furlough: Furlough is a brief release from the prison. It is conditional and is given in case of long-term imprisonment. The period of sentence spent on furlough by the prisoners need not be undergone by him as is done in the case of parole. Furlough is granted as a good conduct remission.

Difference between parole and furlough:

The differences between parole and furlough, laid down in various pronouncements, are as under:

  1. Both parole and furlough are conditional release.
  2. Parole can be granted in case of short-term imprisonment whereas in furlough it is granted in case of long-term imprisonment.
  3. Duration of parole extends to one month whereas in the case of furlough it extends to fourteen days maximum.
  4. Parole is granted by Divisional Commissioner and furlough is granted by the Deputy Inspector General of Prisons.
  5. For parole, specific reason is required, whereas furlough is meant for breaking the monotony of imprisonment.
  6. The term of imprisonment is not included in the computation of the term of parole, whereas it is vice versa in furlough.
  7. Parole can be granted number of times whereas there is limitation in the case of furlough.
  8. Since furlough is not granted for any particular reason, it can be denied in the interest of the society.

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