The Hindu : National : India, U.K. sign pact on transfer of sentenced persons

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Saturday, Feb 19, 2005

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India, U.K. sign pact on transfer of sentenced persons

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, FEB. 18. India and the United Kingdom today signed an agreement on the transfer of sentenced persons. The Home Minister, Shivraj Patil, and the visiting British Secretary of State, Jack Straw, signed the agreement.

Under the agreement a request for transfer may be made by the convicted prisoner or a person entitled to act on his behalf in view of his age or physical or mental condition. The request will have to be agreed upon by the transferring State and the receiving State. The transfer will be effected if the judgment awarding the sentence is final in India and no appeal or revision against the judgment is pending in any court.

The transfer will be made if the convicted prisoner is a citizen of the receiving State notwithstanding that he may also be a citizen of any other foreign State. The law of the receiving State shall govern the enforcement of the sentence. However, the receiving State shall be bound by the legal nature and duration of the sentence as determined by the transferring State.

According to the agreement, the enforcement of sentence in the receiving State, to the extent that it has been enforced in the transferring State, shall have the effect of discharging the sentence; the transferring State alone shall be competent to decide any application for review of the judgment. Either State may grant pardon, amnesty, or commutation in accordance with its Constitution or other laws.

The convicted prisoner shall not be transferred if the transferring State is of the opinion that it would be prejudicial to the sovereignty, security or any other interest of the transferring State or there is any other case pending in the transferring State against the convicted prisoner or he is convicted of an offence under military law or death penalty has been awarded to the convicted prisoner in the transferring State.

The two countries also renewed a Memorandum of Understanding regarding verification and return of illegal Indian migrants in the United Kingdom. It will remain valid up to January 29, 2006, according to an official release here.

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