Life imprisonment implies a jail term for the convict’s entire life, the Supreme Court has held, clearing a misconception on this sentence.
The apex court also said that its Constitution bench’s landmark judgement of 1980 on criterion for imposing death penalty needs a “fresh look” as there has been “no uniformity” in following its principles on what constitutes “the rarest of rare” cases.
“It appears to us there is a misconception that a prisoner serving a life sentence has an indefeasible right to be released on completion of either fourteen years or twenty years imprisonment. The prisoner has no such right.
“A convict undergoing life imprisonment is expected to remain in custody till the end of his life, subject to any remission granted by the appropriate government,” a bench of Justices K.S. Radhakrishnan and Madan B. Lokur said.
The bench, however, clarified that under remission the appropriate government cannot reduce the period of sentence less than 14 years for a life convict.
“In the case of a convict undergoing life imprisonment, he will be in custody for an indeterminate period. Therefore, remissions earned by or awarded to such a life convict are only notional. In his case, to reduce the period of incarceration, a specific order under Section 432 of the CrPC will have to be passed by the appropriate government. However, the reduced period cannot be less than 14 years as per Section 433-A of the CrPC,” the apex court said.
The apex court order also seeks to put an end to the practice of en-masse release of the convicts by various governments on “festive” occasions and said each release requires a case-by-case basis scrutiny.
Keywords: life imprisonment, jail term, Supreme Court order
It is indeed commendable that the SC has ruled that life imprisonment means a jail term for the convict's entire life.However our worthy politicians do not appreciate this interpretation as they want the life term to mean only 14 years as hitherto although this is a misconception. Even though a prisoner serving a life sentence does not enjoy any indefeasible right to be released earlier,the politicos would still circumvent the SC's interpretation and arrange for early release of favored convicts
thereby defeating the very purpose of the Court's sentence.What remedy does the victim's family have in such cases?Incidentally,if I remember right,this very same SC had afforded life prisoners the indefeasible right to be released at the end of 14 years.
Some clarity at some point and the last para"The apex court
order also seeks to put an end to the practice of en-masse
release of the convicts by various governments on “festive”
occasions and said each release requires a case-by-case basis
scrutiny."
this will make tamil nadu crime less as criminals are often
released by successive governments for reasons well known to
them
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