The Bombay High Court recently set aside an order of the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Prisons refusing furlough to three 1993 bomb blasts convicts, who have spent 24 years in jail. The court allowed the convicts 28 days of furlough.

A Division Bench of Justices S.S. Shinde and R.G. Avachat was hearing three criminal petitions filed by the sons of Faridullah Qureshi, Iqbal Ahmed Shaikh and Shaikh Umar, who are lodged at the Central prison in Aurangabad.

They challenged an order passed by Swati Sathe, DIG, Prisons, at the Yerwada Central Jail in Pune on December 15, 2018, refusing to release them on furlough.

The counsel for the convicts said they have been undergoing life sentences and have displayed good conduct. He said they have been released on furlough many times, have never breached any condition and always returned on the given dates.

The public prosecutor said the Prisons (Bombay Furlough and Parole) Rules have been amended and bars releasing furlough prisoners convicted under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act. He said the police station concerned had also expressed reservations on releasing them on furlough.

The court recorded, “Furlough is granted to enable the inmate to maintain continuity with family life and deal with family matters, to save the inmate from evil effects of continuous prison life and maintain constructive hope and active interest in the life.”

The court noted, “Furlough is to enable the prisoner to have family association and to avoid ill-effects of continuous prison life. A prisoner is accorded social interaction, man being a social animal. Social life is brought into existence periodically for a prisoner by providing furlough.”

The Bench set aside the order passed by Ms. Sathe, allowed furlough for 28 days and directed the three to visit the police station concerned on alternate days.