Afzal Khan @ Fazo vs The State Of West Bengal And Others
2023 Latest Caselaw 4728 Cal

AD-04
Ct No.09
03.08.2023
TN
                             WPA No. 1797 of 2022

                               Afzal Khan @ Fazo
                                      Vs.
                       The State of West Bengal and others


             Mr. Jayanta Narayan Chatterjee,
             Mr. Dyutiman Banerjee,
             Ms. Moumita Pandit,
             Mr. Supreem Naskar,
             Ms. Jayashree Patra
                                                  .... for the petitioner

             Mr. Anirban Ray,
             Mr. T.M. Siddiqui,
             Mr. Saptak Sanyal
                                                       ....for the State



                   The petitioner is aggrieved by the rejection of the

             respondent-authorities of the petitioner's request for

premature release. It is contended by learned counsel

for the petitioner that he is in custody for more than

twenty-two years now.

It is contended that on the last occasion,

pursuant to a direction of a coordinate Bench of this

court, the petitioner's case had been considered but it

was rejected again by the respondent-authorities

without giving any valid reasons for such rejection.

Learned counsel submits that there is a

Guideline of the National Human Rights Commission

in place, apart from several judgments of different

High Courts and the Supreme Court, which stipulate

the exact criteria which are to be taken into

consideration in such cases. It is submitted that

those were not adhered to by the respondent-

authorities while rejecting the petitioner's request.

Learned counsel appearing for the State files a

written instruction, where it is indicated that a further

assembly of the State Sentence Review Board (for

short "the SSRB") is on the anvil. It is submitted that

the petitioner's case is one of those which have been

shortlisted for consideration afresh in the said

meeting

Since the State takes the stand that the

petitioner's case has been shortlisted and shall be

placed very soon before the oncoming SSRB meeting,

this court is not inclined to prejudice the outcome of

such consideration by passing orders either way.

The written instructions filed by learned counsel

for the State today be kept on record.

WPA No. 1797 of 2022 is, thus, disposed of by

directing the respondent-authorities to convene a

fresh meeting of the SSRB at the earliest, positively

within one month from date, wherein the other cases,

along with the case of the petitioner, for premature

release, shall be considered afresh, in accordance with

the governing NHRC guidelines and judicial opinion,

without being prejudiced in any manner by any of the

observations made in the previous rejection of the

same and/or the previous rejection itself.

Liberty is granted to the petitioner to move this

court, in the event the petitioner is not satisfied with

the decision taken therein.

A copy of the report filed today be handed over

to learned counsel for the petitioner by tomorrow

(04.08.2023) by the State.

There will be no order as to costs.

Urgent photostat certified copies of this order, if

applied for, be made available to the parties upon

compliance with the requisite formalities.

(Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya, J.)