Hundreds of life convicts lodged in central prisons across Tamil Nadu, who have completed 10 years of imprisonment, will walk free soon on the occasion of the birth centenary of former Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran.
According to prison sources, at least 1,500 prisoners will get the benefit of the general amnesty that would be applicable to life convicts who were convicted by the court of criminal jurisdiction of Tamil Nadu.
Going by the Government Order, life convicts who have completed 10 years of imprisonment and those aged 60 and above and who have completed five years of imprisonment as on February 25 would be eligible for early release.
Eligibility norms
Convicts who were originally sentenced to death by the trial court and modified to life imprisonment by the appellate court may be considered for release.
The provisions of Section 433-A of the CrPC, however, state that “conviction of a person for an offence for which death is one of the punishments provided by law, or where a sentence of death imposed on a person has been commuted under Section 433 into one of imprisonment for life, such person shall not be released from prison unless he had served at least fourteen years of imprisonment.”
This may dash the hopes of some prisoners, including convicts in Dharmapuri bus burning case, among others, since their death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment, according to legal experts.
With the issue of premature release involving convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, the order referred to a Supreme Court judgment in the Union of India vs. Sriharan @ Murugan and others which stated that in cases falling within the jurisdiction of the Central Government “it (prayer for premature release) will assume primacy and consequently the process of ‘consultation’ in reality be held as the requirement of ‘concurrence’.
The government listed several categories of offences, including terrorist crimes, offences against the State, sedition, rape, robbery and dacoity, among others, and said prisoners guilty in such cases would not be eligible for premature release.
