NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has reiterated that life imprisonment is not equivalent to imprisonment for 14 or 20 years.

A Bench consisting of Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice B.N. Srikrishna, relying on an earlier Constitution Bench judgment, held that unless it was commuted or remitted by the appropriate authority under the Indian Penal Code or the Criminal Procedure Code, a prisoner sentenced to life imprisonment was bound by the law to serve the entire life term in prison.

The Bench was dismissing a writ petition filed by a life convict challenging his incarceration for more than 21 years, though under normal circumstances he ought to have been released either at the end of 14 or 20 years. Besides immediate release, he sought compensation from West Bengal for detaining him illegally.

Rejects plea

Writing the judgment, Justice Balakrishnan rejected the petitioner's contention that life imprisonment should not be treated as rigorous treatment and that it should only be simple imprisonment.

He said imprisonment for life was a class of punishment different from ordinary imprisonment, which could be of two descriptions — rigorous or simple. It was unnecessary for the legislature to specify that life term would be rigorous imprisonment for life as it was imposed for grave offences.

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