AZIM SHAH Vs. STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS petition is by the six convicts praying for their release on the ground that they have undergone fourteen years imprisonment, having been sentenced to undergo life imprisonment on the dates specified in column No. 3 of their petition, ranging between 24-7-1972 to 17-7-1976.

(2.) THE petition is resisted by the respondent-State on the grounds that the petitioners are not entitled to the benefit of the ratio of Mohan Singh v. State of M. P. (1980 Jab LJ 746 :1981 Cri LJ 147) because the sentence undergone by them as on 26-1-1978 was below fourteen years, including the remissions allowed to them and that the sentence having been awarded prior to insertion of Section 433a by Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Act No. 45 of 1978, imprisonment for life means imprisonment for rest of the life of the convict and that after completion of fourteen years sentence, the matter has to be placed before the State Government for proper orders, as envisaged by Rules 358 and/or 698, as the case may be. Accordingly, the petitioners have no right to maintain the petition for their release straightway in this Court.

(3.) HAVING heard the petitioners and Shri Jaisingh, Adv. who was requested by this Court to appear as an amicus curiae and Shri S. Kulshreshtha, Dy. Government Advocate for the State, we are of the opinion that the petitioners are not entitled to issuance of a writ directing their release, but only to issuance of a direction to the respondent-State to consider their case as envisaged by Rules 358 and/or 698 made in exercise of powers conferred by Section 59 of the Prisons Act No. IX of 1894, known as Jail Manual and in the manner indicatled therein.