DEEPAK SUDHAKAR WAKALEKAR Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) During the course of arguments, our attention has been invited to an unreported judgment of the Division Bench of this Court rendered at Nagpur, in Cri.W.P.No. 13/2010, dated 8/3/2010 (Ramesh Shobhelal Barve Vs. State of Maharashtra & anr.,2010 BCI 6. The Divisions Bench, by relying on the judgment of the Supreme Court in (State of Maharashtra Vs. Suresh Pandurang, 2006 4 SCC 776 has held that no prisoner could be released by the Competent Authorities in breach of the rules or contrary to the judgments in the case of Suresh. In the matter before the Division Bench at Nagpur, the petitioner had been released on furlough by the respondents therein, upon the prisoner therein, executing the personal bond. Obviously the attention of the Division Bench of this Court was not invited to the proviso to Rule 6 which confers a discretionary power on the authorities to dispense with the requirement of the bond by the relatives of the prisoner, who are confined in prison. The petitioner herein is undergoing his sentence in an open prison as was the petitioner before the Division Bench at Nagpur. In that light of the matter therefore, according to us, the judgment rendered by the Division Bench at Nagpur in Criminal Writ Petition No. 13/2010, dated 8/3/2010 is required to be reconsidered.

(2.) Registry to therefore place the papers before the Hon'ble The Chief Justice for constituting a larger Bench, if the Hon'ble The Chief Justice considers it fit for referring the following question.