Delhi High Court: Right to perform last rites is part of dignity under Article 21

Key facts

• The Delhi High Court (HC) ruled that the right to perform the last rites of a parent is an essential religious and moral duty and a component of the right to dignity under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.
• The ruling was delivered by Justice Ravinder Dudeja in the case of Ajmer Singh alias Pinka v. The State of National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi.
• The petition for emergency parole was filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India read with Section 528 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS).
• The HC clarified that Rule 1212 of the Delhi Prison Rules, 2018, allows a convict to be released on parole for a maximum of eight weeks in a conviction year, with no single spell exceeding four weeks.
• The petitioner in the case was convicted under Sections 376, 354B, and 506 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 66E of the Information Technology (IT) Act.
• The Court emphasised that parole jurisprudence in India is humanitarian and reformist, aimed at maintaining family ties and social integration even in cases of grave convictions.
• The HC observed that denying parole despite verified humanitarian grounds amounts to a mechanical application of rules and defeats the objective of correctional jurisprudence.