India, Nov. 8 -- New Delhi

The right to seek furlough is not absolute but is subject to statutory prescriptions, the Delhi High Court ruled on Friday, as it upheld the 2019 rule framed by the director general (prisons), requiring convicts who return to jail after a gap of more than a year following the dismissal of their appeals to remain under observation for one year before becoming eligible to seek furlough.

A bench of chief justice DK Upadhyay and justice Tushar Rao Gedela delivered the verdict while hearing a petition filed by Deepak Srivastava, who was convicted of dowry death and cruelty towards his wife, and sentenced to life imprisonment in December 2003.

His sentence was suspended by the high court in February 2006 during the...