Delhi HC extends OP Chautala's parole till April 12

The Delhi High Court on Monday extended the parole of former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, serving a 10-year jail term in a teachers' recruitment scam, till April 12.

A division bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Anup Jairam Bhambh also listed Chautala's plea seeking directions to the authorities concerned to release him by granting special remission in view of related notification of 2020 for further hearing on April 12.

Meanwhile, the high court directed the Delhi government to file an affidavit with a relevant record in the petition filed by Chautala, seeking release by granting the benefit of special remission.

Chautala had approached the high court through his lawyer Amit Sahni submitting that the state should have released him considering his age and disability and that his case was covered under the notification issued by the government of India, whereby prisoners with 60 years and above were to be released in half of their sentence.

The petitioner has submitted that he has almost undergone the entire incarceration and as such in view of the earlier order passed in December 2019 by the division bench of Justice Manmohan and Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal, the Delhi government has not granted special remission to him.

Chautala and others were convicted and sentenced in the case of illegal recruitment of 3,206 junior basic teachers (JBT) in 2013.

On January 22, 2013, a trial court had sentenced 55 accused in the teachers' recruitment scam case for illegally recruiting 3,206 teachers in Haryana in 2000. Others sentenced in the case include Chautala's son Ajay Singh Chautala, his then political advisor Sher Singh Badshami, the then Officer on Special Duty (OSD) Vidya Dhar, IAS and then Primary Education Director Sanjiv Kumar.

( With inputs from ANI )