SHYAM LAL Vs. STATE OF U P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) -The petitioners have filed this writ petition for issuance of a writ of habeas corpus directing the respondent authority to produce them in Court and release them forthwith.

(2.) IT is alleged that the petitioners had been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment and were detained in Central Jail, Varanasi. The petitioners had served out sentence as per chart annexed as Annexure-1, which shows that all the petitioners have served out the punishment for more than 14 years and were entitled to be released forthwith keeping in view of the provisions of Section 433A of Cr. P.C. and G.O. No. 231/22-2000, dated 25.1.2000, since all the petitioners had served the sentence with remission for more than 14 years and were accordingly released from jail on 26.1.2000 in view of the above notification. However, the above notification was quashed by a Division Bench of this Court in Criminal Misc. Writ Petition No. 5039 of 2000. In pursuance of above decision, the Government of Uttar Pradesh issued direction for arresting the petitioners, who were released in view of above notification and all the petitioners were arrested by the police and were kept in Varanasi Jail. IT is further alleged that some of the persons affected by the above decision filed special leave petition before the Supreme Court in which interim order was passed on 7.12.2001, according to which, those persons who had served more than 14 years of sentence were not required to surrender. The petitioners were not party to the above writ petition and, therefore, the decision of Writ Petition No. 5039 of 2000 was not binding on them.

(3.) ALL these points were considered by Division Bench of this Court in Criminal Misc. Writ Petition Nos. 1933 of 2002, Guru Prasad Tiwari and others v. State ; 3899 of 2002, Chandrika Prasad and another v. State of U. P. ; 4035 of 2002, Rameshwar and another v. State of U. P. ; 4220 of 2002, Binda v. State of U. P. and 4245 of 2002, Rampal v. State of U. P., decided on 29.8.2002 and it was held that the petitioners were released because the jail authorities felt satisfied that they came within the purview of Government order and satisfied requirement thereof, namely, that they were more than 60 years of age and had undergone three years of sentence. Since no specific order directing their release had been passed after examining their case on merit, there was no occasion or requirement for issuance of any notice to them. That a person, who had been sentenced to imprisonment for life can be released from jail either by grant of pardon by the appropriate authority under Article 72 or 161 of the Constitution. He can also be released on licence under the U. P. Prisoners Release on Probation Act, 1938. At the present moment, there is no order of pardon in favour of petitioners. Similarly no order for release on licence under the 1938 Act has been passed in their favour. In these circumstances, there is no provision whose sentence of imprisonment for life has become final may claim to remain out side the jail. That the petitioners, were not entitled to remain out side the jail even after Government orders on the basis of which they had been released from jail have been quashed by this Court and are no longer in existence. The review petition filed by the State of U. P., Criminal Misc. Application No. 121989 of 2001, was rejected by a Division Bench on 15.7.2002 and it was observed that after a convicted person has been taken into custody, it is always open to State Government to consider his case and pass appropriate order for his premature release strictly in accordance with law. That in view of authoritative pronounce-ment by the Apex Court, it is absolutely clear that imprisonment for life means the imprisonment for the whole life and till the last breath.