A proposed legal amendment would allow courts in Nepal to permit convicts to serve their sentences at home under electronic monitoring rather than in prison.

The Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs has drafted a bill to amend the existing criminal sentencing and execution law, introducing provisions for electronic monitoring, home-based imprisonment, and expanded parole and probation mechanisms.

Under a proposed new Section 28(a) to the Criminal Offences (Sentencing and Execution) Act, 2017, courts may order convicts to serve prison terms under electronic surveillance if deemed appropriate. The convict would be required to bear the cost of the monitoring device. Failure to pay would result in imprisonment.

Courts would consider the severity of the offence, as well as the convict’s age, physical and mental condition, and conduct, before granting such orders. Any breach of conditions would result in an additional one-year prison sentence on top of the original term.

The draft also allows courts to impose location restrictions during pre-trial detention. A proposed Section 74(a) to the Criminal Procedure Code would enable judges, considering the gravity of the offence, to restrict an accused person’s movement instead of remanding them to custody, with or without electronic monitoring.

Parole provisions have also been expanded. The draft allows prisoners aged 75 or above, or those with terminal illness or severe physical incapacity, to be released on parole with location restrictions after serving three years, subject to approval by the Probation and Parole Board.

Life-term prisoners may become eligible for parole after serving 30 years if their behaviour is deemed satisfactory.

The bill also proposes reducing the eligibility threshold for parole—which allows a prisoner to live in society under the supervision of a parole officer—from the current two-thirds of a sentence to 60 percent. The Probation and Parole Board, chaired by the Attorney General, would oversee implementation.

Separately, prisoners sentenced to up to three years may be assigned to community service instead of incarceration if the court finds prison unnecessary. Under Section 22 of the Act, judges can make this decision after evaluating the convict’s age, conduct, circumstances of the offence, and methods used, provided the convict consents to the community service. Currently, this option applies only to sentences of up to six months.

The draft further allows judges to send well-behaved prisoners who have served 60 percent of their sentences to open prisons, based on recommendations from prison authorities.