BALA RANI Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BALA Rani petitioner, was convicted for an offence under section 304B, Indian Penal Code and was sentenced to, undergo life imprisonment by the learned Sessions Judge, Faridabad vide his judgment dated October 7, 1989. She has moved this petition under section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure for issuance of direction to respondents to release her on furlough for three weeks under section 4 of the Haryana Good Conduct Prisoners (Temporary Release) Act, 1988 (Act for short). As per averments made in the petition she had undergone more than three years actual sentence of imprisonment and her conduct remained good and satisfactory during this tenure. She had four children who were below the ago of twelve years. She applied for grant of furlough 'for three weeks to look after her children and to console her mother on the death of her father but respondent No. 2 refused to initiate her furlough case on the ground that she had not undergone three years of her actual sentence after excluding the period of detention during trial and she had not earned three annual good conduct remissions.

(2.) IN the return filed by the respondents it, was contended that the petitioner had undergone three years four months sentence till October 20, 1991 which included the under trial period of one year three months. She availed benefit of parole thrice since her conviction and it was wrongly stated that she bad not seen her children since the day of her arrest. She was not eligible for furlough on the ground that she had not earned at least three annual good conduct remissions as required under the law.

(3.) ONE of the necessary conditions to be fulfilled before a prisoner is eligible to release on furlough is that he or she must have earned at least three annual good conduct remissions. As the petitioner was convicted only on October 7, 1989 she has not served actual sentence of three years for the purpose of earning those remissions. Pre-sentence detention period cannot be included while determining, whether the petitioner earned three annual good conduct remissions. Para 639 of the Jail Manual provides that only that prisoner is eligible for remission under, the rules, who for a period of one year reckoned from the first date of the month following the date of his sentence of the date on which he was last punished for a prison offence, has committed no prison offence whatever. The period to earn remission for good conduct thus starts from the first date of the month following the date of sentence. The date of sentence in the present case is October 7, 1989 and till today the petitioner has not earned three annual good conduct remissions. She is thus not entitled to be released on furlough under section 4 of the Act.