PIL in HC questions parole extension to actor Sanjay Dutt

A PIL was filed in the Bombay High Court today challenging the extension in parole granted to Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt.
The PIL also alleged that the Superintendent of Yerawada Jail and Pune Divisional Commissioner have abused their powers in extending parole to the 53-year-old actor.
Today, the third consecutive extension in parole was granted to Dutt.
Dutt, who is currently serving the remainder of five-year sentence awarded to him by the Supreme Court last year for his complicity in the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts case, is out on parole since December. In January, his parole was extended for another month and he was to surrender on February 21.

However, Dutt applied for another month's extension citing his wife Manyata's ill health, which was today allowed by the Pune Divisional Commissioner. Dutt will now have to surrender on March 21.
The petitioner Tushar Pabale argued that the Superintendent of Yerawada Jail and the Divisional Commissioner abused their discretionary powers by extending the parole and prayed for framing of guidelines while considering parole and furlough applications of convicts.
"The petition also seeks for information from the authorities regarding the number of applications received by it from convicts seeking parole or furlough, how many were allowed and rejected and how many times extension was granted on three occasions as in the case of Sanjay Dutt," Pabale's advocate Nikhil Chaudhari said.

The petition was mentioned before a division bench of Justices N H Patil and V L Achliya, which has posted it for hearing on February 25.