Harpreet Singh, who had served nine years of his life sentence, had sought parole in order to file a Special Leave Petition. Another convict Duli Chand, who had served over 13 years of his sentence for raping a girl in Delhi, had requested parole to deal with an issue pertaining to his ancestral property.
In both the cases, parole for one month had been recommended by Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and Principal Secretary (Home) Arvind Ray. But the Lt Governor rejected it in both cases in early December.
"Parole recommendations are made after jail authorities observe the conduct of the convicts. It is not made just out of thin air. The Chief Minister and the Home Secretary made the recommendation based on inputs from the jail," Spolia said.
"The rejection of the parole by the Lt Governor should not be see as a grave difference of opinion. Parole is not bail...Even murderers are given parole. One should not read too much into it," he said.
More From This Section
"On one hand the Chief Minister is talking about women safety and on the other hand she has been recommending parole for rape convicts. This is atrocious. The Government must send a strong message that it will not be lenient towards perpetrators of such crimes," said Goel.
"Dikshit has been talking about women safety. But this is a brazen case of the Chief Minister not being very serious in containing heinous crimes against women," he said.