KAMESHWAR BELDAR Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS writ petition on behalf of four petitioners has been filed for their premature release on the ground that they have served actual incarceration for more than 14 years.

(2.) IN the counter affidavit due dates of petitioners&apos release have been indicated is under.

(3.) THE question whether a convict sentenced for imprisonment for life is entitied to release on completing period of 14 years is not res Integra. Section 57 of the Indian Penal Code provides that in calculating fractions of terms of punishment, imprisonment for life shall be reckoned as equivalent to imprisonment for twenty years, In Gopal Vinayak Godse V/s. The State of Maharashtra & Ors., AIR 1961 Supreme Court 600, a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court while dwelling upon the scope of the provisions of section 57 observed that it has no real bearing on the question of release. For calculating fractions of terms of punishment the section provides that transportation for life (read, imprisonment for life) shall be regarded as equivalent to imprisonment for twenty years. It does not say that transportation for life (i.e. imprisonment of life) shall be deemed to be transportation (i.e. imprisonment) for twenty years for all purposes; nor does the amended section which substitutes the words "imprisonment for life" for "transportation for life" enable the drawing of any such all -embracing fiction. A sentence of transportation for life or imprisonment for life must prima facie be treated as transportation or imprisonment for the whole of the remaining period of the convicted person&aposs natural life. The Court further observed, "If so, the next question is whether there is any provision of law whereunder a sentence for life imprisonment, without any formal remission by appropriate Government, can be automatically treated as one for a definite period. No such provision is found in the Indian Penal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure or the Prisons Act."