The Supreme Court recently observed that life imprisonment can be imposed without any remission till the last breath, in place of death sentence [Ravindra v. Union of India and Others].
A Division Bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and MM Sundresh said that the majority view of the Supreme Court in Union of India v. V Sriharan was clear on this aspect.
It thus rejected the argument of a convict to look into the minority view in Sriharan which said that it is not open for the court to make any special category of sentence in substitution of death penalty.
“Once the majority opines in a particular matter, that is the judgment of the Constitution Bench which says that there can be imposition of life imprisonment without any remission till the last breath as a substitution of death sentence. We thus reject that argument,” the Court said.
In the V Sriharan case, the top court had held that a special category of sentence instead of death can be substituted by the punishment of imprisonment for life or for a term exceeding 14 years, and the said category can be put beyond any application of remission.
The petitioner relied upon the minority view of the above-mentioned case.
But the apex court refused to accept the same in the instant case.
It, however, issued notice on the question of juvenility of the accused at the time of commission of the crime and posted the matter for further hearing in March.
Advocate-on-Record Anu Gupta and advocate Sanjay Mani Tripathi appeared for the petitioner.
Read Order here:
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