Supreme Court: Life term doesn’t mean just 20 years

The Supreme Court handed down a significant judgment Wednesday, holding that a convict sentenced to life imprisonment cannot automatically be released after 20 years in jail. The impact of the convict’s release on society and the victims has to be taken into consideration before ordering the release of such life convicts, it said.

This verdict is likely to have a bearing on seven convicts sentenced to life imprisonment in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case seeking release on the grounds that they have been in jail for over 25 years. The SC had already held that the state government should seek the consent of the Centre before ordering their release.

Giving Wednesday’s ruling in an appeal filed by the state of Gujarat challenging a Punjab and Haryana HC order directing the release of a life convict on parole before considering his release, a bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Shiva Kirti Singh said that under the provisions of the CrPC a sentence of imprisonment for life does not automatically expire at the end of 20 years, including remissions, because the administrative rules framed under the various jail manuals or under the Prisons Act cannot supersede the statutory provisions of the Indian Penal Code.