KOLKATA: The Calcutta High Court has directed all trial court judges to stop the practice of sentencing murder convicts to life imprisonment till death, unless in heinous rape and gangrape cases in which law provides for such sentences. It said such orders can be misinterpreted that the sentences cannot be remitted or commuted or even be pardoned by the President or governor.
A division bench of Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Bivas Pattanayak in their judgment said, "Except in cases where the law provides for a sentence of imprisonment for life which shall mean imprisonment for the remainder of the person's natural life (e.g, sections 376A, 376AB, 376D, 376DA, 376DB and 376E of IPC), trial courts while imposing a sentence of life imprisonment as provided under section 53 of IPC shall not qualify the said sentence by directing that the sentence shall continue till the death of the convict or without remission as prescribed in law."
The sections specified related to heinous rape and gangrape cases in which the penal sections specifically mention that imprisonment for life "shall mean imprisonment for the remainder of that person's natural life," disallowing any other interpretation.
The court while delivering its judgment in a 2014 Tamluk murder case noted that the trial judge had "imposed a sentence of life imprisonment till death". The HC in its order said life imprisonment - the apex court has clarified - ordinarily means imprisonment till end of life. But by mentioning life imprisonment till death in their orders, the trial court judges are trying to stress that life imprisonment shall not be remitted or commuted till death.
The HC said a trial court cannot pass such orders in murder cases. The apex court, the HC said, has clarified such a sentence can be imposed only by Supreme Court or by high court while converting a death sentence to one of life imprisonment.
It said, "This Court has, in a number of cases, noted a propensity amongst trial Court judges to impose a sentence of life imprisonment with qualifications like the present one. This Court, therefore, feels it necessary to issue a practice direction to all judicial officers in the State so that in similar cases they do not fall in error and impose sentence of life imprisonment without remission."
