New Delhi, Jun 16 (PTI) The Delhi High Court has said for a punishment to be scientific, it ought to "have an end somewhere" during the convict's lifetime and ordered the state to reconsider a prisoner’s plea for premature release.
Justice Girish Kathpalia, referring to Kautilya’s Arthashastra, said the release of convicted prisoners on sympathetic grounds before completion of the term of imprisonment imposed on them was a significant part of ancient Hindu jurisprudence.
The court was hearing the plea of one Vikram Yadav, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in a 2001 murder case, and had undergone over 21 years imprisonment without remission.
Earlier, the Sentence Review Board (SRB) rejected his case for premature release five times between August 2020 and June 2023, following which the present petition was filed.
In an order on June 11, the judge said, "Kautilya’s Arthshastra makes references to the element of reformatory policy of sentencing that later came to be known as remission. Release of convicted prisoners on sympathetic grounds before completion of the term of imprisonment imposed on them was a significant part of the ancient Hindu jurisprudence."
Kautilya, the judge said, advocated for the periodic exercise of premature release of prisoners, who were young or very old or ailing and those who maintained good conduct in prison.
"To recapitulate in the present case, the premature release has been declined to the petitioner on the grounds of gravity and perversity of the crime (abduction for ransom and murder); jumping of parole and re-arrest in two other criminal cases, showing non reformative attitude; strong objection by police; and possibility of committing crime again. It would be apposite to examine each of these grounds individually," the court said.
The court said for reformative sentencing, such long incarceration as already undergone by Yadav, in a crime occurring in 2001, "the perversity must be visualised as faded".
The "wound suffered by the kith and kin" of the victim which was fresh in the year 2001 would have been reduced to a scab, and time heals all wounds, the order added.
"This is the only way to fathom to ensure purposive application of the reformatory tool of premature release; otherwise, no convict would ever be granted an opportunity to reform himself," the court said.
The verdict said for a life imprisonment, awarded in gruesome offences in which the appropriate punishment was tad short of capital sentence, and a punishment to be scientific, there ought to be an "end somewhere during the lifetime of the convict".
On the point of jumping parole and re-arrest, the court said it took place in 2015 following which there was "not even a whiff of any allegation of any jail misconduct" against him.
The petitioner was subsequently awarded a number of commendations by the jail authorities, the court noted.
"I have no doubt that the petitioner stands substantially reformed and can become a useful member of society. Keeping the petitioner in jail for a further period would not yield any fruitful result towards his reformation or to society at large," the judge said.
He said the SRBs' approach needed to be "reformation-oriented and not a routine disposal/statistics-dominated exercise".
"The impugned decision of denial of premature release to the petitioner suffers from vices of non-application of mind and a completely mechanical approach to such a sensitive issue. But for the time being, instead of straightaway directing the premature release of the petitioner, it is considered appropriate that the SRB be given a chance to re-examine the entire issue," the order said.
The court underscored the need to reconsider the composition of the SRB, which it said, must include an eminent sociologist and a criminologist with "missionary zeal and sensitivity" towards the reformation of the prisoner under consideration.
"Another vital component of SRB can be the concerned Jail Superintendent, who had the best opportunity to watch the reformative growth or otherwise of the prisoner concerned from close quarters," the order said.