Supreme Court Limits No-Remission Life Terms to Constitutional Courts

Overview

• A bench of Justices Ahsanuddin Amanullah and K Vinod Chandran held that Sessions Courts cannot direct life imprisonment to run till natural life or strip statutory remission and commutation powers.
• The Supreme Court set aside the Karnataka High Court’s affirmation of a trial court’s no-remission order, upholding the conviction but altering the punishment to ordinary life imprisonment.
• The ruling restores the convict’s eligibility for consideration of remission or commutation under the Code of Criminal Procedure and for constitutional clemency.
• Citing Swamy Shraddananda and the Constitution Bench ruling in Union of India v. V. Sriharan, the Court reiterated that only constitutional courts may impose no-remission or extended fixed-term life sentences.
• The underlying case concerned a widow who was set on fire after rejecting advances, with two consistent dying declarations forming the core of the evidence.