SRI GOPAL SARKAR Vs. STATE OF WEST BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is a lifer, in jail custody for more than twenty-three years. Kamal and Nepal Sarkar, the petitioner's brothers, made several efforts to obtain remission of the petitioner after he had served a considerable part of his sentence (more than fourteen years). Upon the State Sentence Review Board (SSRB) having rejected the petitioner's request for premature release on February 3, 2020, a writ petition, being WPA 3571 of 2020, was moved before this court, which was dismissed vide Judgment and Order dated February 19, 2021, thereby upholding the report of the SSRB.

(2.) Being thus aggrieved, the petitioner preferred an appeal bearing MAT No. 252 of 2021. It was disposed of by a Division Bench on April 9, 2021 by granting liberty to the petitioner to make an appropriate application for remission of sentence before the competent authority, who was directed by the Division Bench to duly process that application following due procedure in terms of Sec. 432 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Cr.P.C) and have a final decision taken through the competent authority.

(3.) The SSRB, in its sixty-fifth meeting held on July 14, 2021, considered the cases of 322 life convicts for premature release under Sec. 432 of the Cr.P.C. However, the petitioner Gopal Sarkar, along with some others, was not recommended by the SSRB for premature release in its report. Such report was accepted by the State Government by an Order of the Principal Secretary to the Government of West Bengal dated September 9, 2021, against which the present writ petition has been preferred.