SIKANDER MOHD SAHFI Vs. STATE NCT OF DELHI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this petition, the Petitioner seeks direction to Respondent No.1 to expeditiously place the case of the Petitioner before the Sentence Reviewing Board (in short SRB') with direction to dispose of the same within fortnight.

(2.) Learned counsel for the Petitioner contends that the Petitioner was convicted for offence under Section 302 IPC vide judgment dated 5 th August, 1991. The Petitioner was awarded death sentence by the learned Additional Sessions Judge and the reference for confirmation of death sentence was sent to this Court. This Court answered the reference in negative and thus on 28 th May, 1992 the Petitioner was awarded life sentence. Special Leave Petition filed by the Petitioner was dismissed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court on 6 th April, 1999. On 12 th July, 2000, the Government of NCT brought out a Notification framing the guidelines for premature release under Section 433A Cr.P.C. by the SRB, Delhi. This Notification was further reviewed on 5 th March, 2004. The Notification dated 5 th March, 2004 was thereafter reviewed on 16 th July, 2004.

(3.) The Petitioner earlier filed a writ petition being WP(Crl.) No.1324/2009 before this Court seeking reference of his name to the SRB for grant of premature release, which petition was disposed of vide order dated 18 th December, 2009 by this Court directing that the writ petition be treated as representation and disposed of within a period of four weeks in terms of the Sentence Reviewing Board Guidelines issued by Government of NCT of Delhi. On 25 th January, 2010, the Superintendent, Central Jail No.2, Tihar wrote back that the Petitioner was not eligible for premature release. As per the letter of the Superintendent, Central Jail No.2, Tihar it was noted that according to clause 3.1(a) & (c), the convict who have been imprisoned for life in heinous crimes such as multiple murder etc. and convict whose death sentence has been commuted to life imprisonment would be eligible for premature release after completing 20 years of imprisonment with remission. The Petitioner having completed actual imprisonment of 14 years, 7 months and 11 days of actual imprisonment and with remission total imprisonment of 16 years, 9 months and 16 days was thus not eligible for consideration by the SRB of Delhi.