SC lifts ban on States' power of remission

States can now decide on remission appeals of life convicts provided they are not rapists, their crimes are not investigated by CBI or any Central agency, and where there is no judicial order to keep them in jail till death or till a specific number of years, say 20 or 30 years.Prescribing these set of restrictions, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court on Thursday modified its earlier order of July 9, 2014 which imposed a complete ban on States’ power of remission from even taking up appeals of life convicts for early release.

This power is made available to States under Sections 432 and 433 of the Criminal Procedure Code. Several questions of law came to be raised on the exercise of this power by States after the Tamil Nadu Government released seven convicts in the killing of former PM Rajiv Gandhi on the day when Supreme Court commuted the death sentence of three of the prisoners to life term. The Centre filed an appeal in the Supreme Court terming the State’s decision to be an abuse of remission power and argued whether, State could release prisoners in CBI-investigated cases.

The Bench comprising Chief Justice Hl Dattu, Justices FM Ibrahim Kalifulla, PC Ghose, AM Sapre and UU lalit, while hearing the Centre’s appeal, heard States and Centre on this issue and decided to pass the interim order, which will be subject to the final decision in this matter.According to the order, the power of remission can be exercised by States but in limited measure.

It cannot deal with remission appeals by life convicts condemned to remain in jail till death or where remission has been specifically barred till a certain period of years. Such orders are generally passed by the apex court while commuting death sentence to life term on a case-to-case basis.Besides, if the prisoner in question was previously considered for commutation by the State Government, remission will not be granted, said the court. A specific bar was placed additionally on CBI-investigated cases, rape cases, and where punishment is under a law other than IPC. The order was extended even to cases for pardon under the Constitution exercised by President (under Article 72) and Governor (under Article 161). “We also permit President and Governor under Articles 72/161 to exercise their power under Constitution except cases referred above,” the bench said.

The case of Rajiv Gandhi killers was excluded as the court had earlier stayed the order of remission granted by the TN Government on Centre’s appeal. The court directed the Registry of the Supreme Court to convey the order to all States at the earliest.