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Can court curtail remission powers?

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has sought the assistance of Solicitor-General G. E. Vahanvati to examine whether it can curtail the powers of the executive to grant remission of sentence.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice K. G. Balakrishnan and Justice R.V. Raveendran was hearing on Wednesday a writ petition filed by Subhashsingh Shobhnathsingh Thakur seven years after the court reduced his death sentence to life imprisonment with the condition that he would not be entitled to any further commutation or premature release and that he would be in jail for the rest of his life. The Bench also issued notice to the Maharashtra government.

Justice Raveendran told senior counsel Harish Salve, appearing for the petitioner: “We will be opening the floodgates if we go and entertain a petition relating to the judgment which has attained finality. We are more worried about the message that will be sent by us that after seven or eight years of the judgment which has attained finality it can be altered.”

The Bench agreed to examine the matter after Mr. Salve made it clear that he was not arguing on the merits of the case but raising a constitutional issue.

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