Khushi Bajpai
Published on: September 12, 2022 at 19:56 IST
The Supreme Court emphasized in a recent ruling that the state must implement its policy for the early release of life-sentenced prisoners in a transparent and impartial manner.
The court declared that the state must treat cases of eligibility for remission differently because numerous criminals remain in jail despite receiving lengthy sentences because they lack access to legal means to seek for remission.
These important statements were made by a panel made up of Justices DY Chandrachud and Hima Kohli when they were deciding a group of writ petitions filed by prisoners in Uttar Pradesh seeking remission. The cases pertained to 512 convicts.
The bench noted that:
“The constitutional protections under Articles 14 and 21 would be violated if the policy for premature release were not implemented in an objective and open manner.”
“Many of these life criminals, who have endured a torturous period of incarnation, are resourceless. Their inability to obtain legal remedies is hampered by a lack of literacy, education, and social support systems.”
“Once the state has created its policy outlining the conditions for early release, all eligible prisoners must be given appropriate consideration under the rules of the policy.”
“An unfair method of reviewing applications for premature in terms of the policy must not preclude the constitutional protections against arbitrary treatment and the right to secure life and personal liberty.”
The state’s remission policy’s requirement that life prisoners wait until they were 60 years old before applying for remission was the subject of the writ petitions. Later on, though, the state decided not to include the condition.
The court focused on the problem of prisoners who are incarcerated indefinitely because they are unaware of the remission policy over the course of the proceedings.
In this regard, the court mandated that the authorities take qualified convicts’ cases into consideration right away, without having to wait for applications.