‘Life Sentence’ and ‘Remission’; Questions referred to Constitution Bench in Sriharan Case and the Answers given [Read Judgment]

BackgroundIn Swamy Shraddananda v. State of Karnataka, a three Judge Bench of the Supreme Court held that there is a good and strong basis for the Court to substitute a death sentence by life imprisonment or by a term in excess of fourteen years and further to direct that the convict must not be released from the prison for the rest of his life or for the actual term as specified. Background In Swamy Shraddananda v. State of Karnataka, a three Judge Bench of the Supreme Court held that there is a good and strong basis for the Court to substitute a death sentence by life imprisonment or by a term in excess of fourteen years and further to direct that the convict must not be released from the prison for the rest of his life or for the actual term as specified in the order, as the case may be. While CJI Dattu, Justice Ibrahim Kalifulla and Justice PC Ghosh upheld the ratio, Justices AM Sapre and U.U.Lalit dissented Questions Referred and Answers given by the Constitution Bench; Question No.1 ; Whether imprisonment for life in terms of Section 53 read with Section 45 of the Penal Code meant imprisonment for rest of the life of the prisoner or a convict undergoing life imprisonment has a right to claim remission and whether as per the principles enunciated in paras 91 to 93 of Swamy Shraddananda, a special category of sentence may be made for the very few cases where the death penalty might be substituted by the punishment of imprisonment for life or imprisonment for a term in excess of fourteen years and to put that category beyond application of remission? The status of Appropriate Government whether Union Government or the State Government will depend upon the order of sentence passed by the Criminal Court as has been stipulated in Section 432 and in the event of specific Executive Power conferred on the Centre under a law made by the Parliament or under the Constitution itself then in the event of the conviction and sentence covered by the said law of the Parliament or the provisions of the Constitution even if the Legislature of the State is also empowered to make a law on the same subject and coextensive, the Appropriate Government will be the Union Government having regard to the prescription contained in the proviso to Article 73 of the Constitution.