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."
