The Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Maharashtra government on an application filed by Delhi University’s former professor G. N. Saibaba for emergency parole to attend the post funeral rituals of his late mother.

Prof. Saibaba, who is serving life term at the Nagpur Central Prison for links with Maoists, lost his ailing mother on August 1 even as his lawyers were seeking to arrange a video conference between the two.

Last week, the prison authorities rejected Prof. Saibaba’s application seeking parole for attending the last rites of his 74-year-old mother, who died in Hyderabad.

He had earlier also sought parole from the prison authorities to meet his mother in Hyderabad, but it was rejected.

In his latest plea, Prof. Saibaba sought to be released from jail on parole to attend the post-funeral rituals of his mother.

The High Court on Tuesday directed the State government to respond to the plea by August 18.

Last month, the High Court rejected his bail plea in which he sought to be released for 45 days on medical grounds so that he could get treatment outside and also meet his mother.

Prof. Saibaba, who is wheelchair-bound with over 90% physical disability, and four others were convicted by a sessions court in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district in March 2017 for Maoist links and engaging in activities amounting to “waging war against the country“.

The court held Prof. Saibaba and others, including a journalist and a Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student, guilty under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).