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Preferring life over death

In cases of terror attacks that claim scores of innocent civilian lives, trial courts often hand out the maximum punishment — the death sentence — to the main accused. Yet, despite finding most of the 166 accused in the Coimbatore serial blasts case guilty on various counts, the Special Court judge K. Uthirapathy quite rightly chose not to invoke the capital punishment that in this newspaper’s view would not be justified even in the rarest of rare cases. The most high-profile among the accused, S.A. Basha and Mohammed Ansari, founder and general secretary respectively of the banned Al-Umma, were given life terms for conspiracy to plant the bombs. The serial blasts in Coimbatore on February 14, 1998 left 58 dead and more than 250 injured, but the magnitude of the crime was not allowed to influence fair and appropriate sentencing principles. The remission given to those serving life terms after 14 years in prison is often used as an argument against the life sentence and to make the case for capital punishment. But as the Supreme Court made it clear in a 2005 ruling, imprisonment for life is not limited to any definite period in prison but must continue for the whole of the remaining period of the convict’s natural life. The court is currently hearing petitions seeking to lay down uniform guidelines for remission of life terms, and the Centre is to file a comprehensive affidavit on the issue of premature release of prisoners in jails across the country.

Even according to the existing practice, any remission is not automatic: it depends on the conduct of the prisoner during the period of the sentence in prison, the likely impact of remission on society, and the possibility of reformation of the prisoner. Thus, instances of indiscriminate remission of life terms by state governments cannot be held up as an argument to favour the death penalty over the life term sentence. However, the most striking aspect of the Coimbatore blasts case trial remains the inordinately-long trial period: nine years. Many of those acquitted of all charges, including People’s Democratic Party leader Abdul Nasir Maudany, had to spend the entire trial period in detention. Not surprisingly, 85 of those who were convicted walked free, with the time spent in prison as undertrials being set off against the sentence. Of the rest, 43 who were charged with conspiracy have been awarded life terms, and would have to remain in jail along with 15 others sentenced to 13 years of rigorous imprisonment. Eight of the 10 accused who were sentenced to 10 years’ RI are already out of jail after remission for good conduct. If the wheels of justice turn this slowly, much of the significance of the conviction and the sentencing would seem to be lost.

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