Judicial Dictionary
| Title | Imprisonment for life |
|---|---|
| Details |
Five heads, namely, i) the motive for killing the deceased; ii) last seen theory; iii) recovery of the dead body in a gunny sack together with clothes and a knife; iv) the fact that the two accused persons, who were stated to be brothers, were absconding after the incident and v) the fact that Accused No.2 gave false information. The Sessions Court, on a combination of the aforesaid five factors, ultimately held the two accused guilty of murder and sentenced them to imprisonment for life. There were at least eight factors which led this Court to set aside the judgment passed by the Division Bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, on the ground that cumulatively all eight factors would lead to the conclusion that the High Court judgment was perverse. .....Parasa Koteswararao =VS= Eede Sree Hari, (Criminal), 2017 (2)– [3 LM (SC) 68] ....View Full Judgment The word `imprisonment' has been substituted for the word 'transportation' by Ordinance No.XLI of 1985. When framing the Penal Code, the draftsmen undoubtly intended this sentence to remain as one whereby those on whom it was passed should be sent over seas. This can be inferred if the history of the sentence is examined that when the first enacted, `transportation' means transportation beyond seas, although in India it has been substituted in 1955. Section 45 defines the word 'life' means 'the life of a human being unless the contrary appears from the context'. So if no contrary appears from the context 'life' means the life of a human being. The meaning of the words 'year' and 'month' have been defined in section 49, which means 'the year or the month is to be reckoned according to this British calendar'. Here the expression 'reckoned' is used which will be very significant for resolving the issue, and in calculating the period of sentence, a 'year' means its length i.e. about 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 51.6 seconds. To do away with the odd hours, the new style of calendar has adopted the average length is about 365 days and every fourth year of 366 days (24 Geo.11.c25). A sentence for one calendar month does not imply imprisonment for a fixed number of days. It may vary according to the month in which the sentence is passed. If the imprisonment began on the 30th of a month it will expire at midnight of the 29th of the following month, if the following month is not February, in which case it will expire on its last day whatever be the total number of days served by the prisoner. Section 53 of the Penal Code sets out five different punishments to which offenders are liable to suffer under the provisions of the Penal Code. The first sentence is death; the second is imprisonment for life; the third was omitted by the criminal law (Extinction of Discriminatory Privileges) Act, 1949; the fourth is imprisonment of rigorous or simple, the fifth is forfeiture of property and the sixth is fine. In the explanation it is provided that in the punishment of 'imprisonment for life' the 'imprisonment shall be rigorous'. So all imprisonment for life shall be rigorous imprisonment whether it is mentioned in the judgment or not. Reading sections 45 and 53 conjointly there is no doubt that a sentence of life imprisonment means a sentence of rigorous imprisonment for the whole of the remaining period of the convicted person's natural life. .....Ataur Mridha =VS= The State, (Criminal), 2017 (2)– [3 LM (AD) 513] ....View Full Judgment
Imprisonment for life 30 years– The review petition is disposed of with
the following observations and directions by majority decision:
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