The NDA Government is keen to let victims of a crime have a say in matters of remission granted to life convicts by States or Centre. On Wednesday, the Centre represented by Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar asked the Supreme Court to consider the question whether a victim should be given a right of hearing by the State or Centre before it decided on remission appeals of life convicts.
The submission was made before a Constitution Bench dealing with the appeal filed by the Centre against the Jayalalithaa Government’s decision to suo moto grant remission to Rajiv Gandhi killers. Kumar requested the Court to deal with the victim’s right under Sections 432, 433, and 435 of Criminal Procedure Code dealing with remission along with the seven questions already framed by Court.
He said, “In addition to the above, the Centre would like the Constitution Bench to decide on an additional question whether victims of incident of crime have to be heard during any stage or the authority under the law can decided on the application of the accused without hearing the victim.”
This question had become necessary in the light of recent amendments to the CrPC, Solicitor General said. The bench of Chief Justice RM lodha, Justices JS Khehar, J Chelameswar, AK Sikri and Rohington Nariman has already issued notice to all States in the matter. Earlier a three-judge bench had framed seven questions of law asking the Constitution Bench to determine among other things whether it is the state or Centre that will have primacy in matters of grant of remission to life convict prisoners and if so, whether such power could be exercised after the President or the Supreme Court had given a final view.
In addition, the Constitution Bench will also decide if in place of death sentence, Courts can order varying periods of incarceration beyond 14 years, during which the Government is restrained from granting remission.