NEW DELHI: Jamlabhai Hursingbhai Meda has been in a Gujarat prison for more than 30 years because of a life sentence in a murder case. Gauri Shankar Singh and Ravi Ranjan Singh, convicted for armed dacoity, are waiting for release from a Chhattisgarh prison even after serving more than 25 years in jail.
A life convict is entitled to seek remission of sentence and release from prison after serving 14 years. But as many as 3,487 prisoners, who have completed 14 years in jail without remission, are awaiting consideration of their release pleas for a possible reunion with their families.
A Supreme Court bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Hrishikesh Roy decided to take up the case of these forgotten prisoners after amicus curiae Gaurav Agrawal and the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) collated statistics from state prison authorities, which depicted a grim picture.
The bench had sought the report after it came across a case from Chhattisgarh where a remission plea of one Sonadhar was sent by the jail superintendent two years after he completed 14 years in prison. The state home department took one more year to accept the plea and order release. The bench asked the reason for the delay of three years when the person was entitled to remission after 14 years and sought to fix responsibility.
Times View
This is primarily a human rights issue. Life convicts are also humans. They deserve their freedom after serving the appropriate sentence. Codification of the process through which this can be realized is a much-needed move and should help get rid of arbitrariness.
It asked Chhattisgarh “to file an affidavit setting out as to what process they have or propose to initiate to ensure that immediately on completing 14 years of sentence, the superintendent, jail, is responsible for ensuring that the application is sent for consideration for remission, not later than one month...”
The amicus curiae’s report said of the 3,487 lifers, 2,868 were eligible for release after remission. Applications of 1,649 of them were pending with state governments and 752 such applications were rejected, it added.
Gujarat led the table with remission applications of 405 lifers pending consideration. In Uttarakhand, 266 are pending. Bengal has rejected 522 and is considering pleas of 264 prisoners. Chhattisgarh has 183 pending pleas, Assam has 150 and Jharkhand 99.
The bench said it would be preferable that remission applications are made by jail superintendents within a month of a prisoner completing 14 years of life sentence. The home department should decide it within two to three months. “There are 1,649 applications of convicts for premature release pending. It should be verified as to how long have these applications been pending...,” the bench said.