Life imprisonment only for death commuted convicts: AG
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam today said that imprisonment until death will be applicable for the convicts whose death sentences will be commuted to life imprisonment by the higher courts.
The top law officer of the state came up with the observation while talking to reporters at his office in response to a Supreme Court verdict which said life imprisonment means a jail sentence for rest of the life of the convict.
READ MORE: Life imprisonment means jail until death: SC releases full verdict
The lower court verdict that sentences a convict to life imprisonment will be applicable under the existing provision of the law, Mahbubey Alam added.
Section 57 of the Penal Code says, “In calculating fractions of terms of punishment, [imprisonment] for life shall be reckoned as equivalent to [rigorous imprisonment for thirty years]”.
On Monday, the Appellate Division of the SC released the full text of its verdict on two appeals against a 2007 High Court judgement, saying that life imprisonment means a jail sentence for rest of the life of the convict.
“Life imprisonment within the meaning of Section 53, read with Section 45 of the Penal Code, means imprisonment for rest of the life of the convict,” the apex court said in the verdict.
The SC explained its opinion in the full verdict, saying, “Section 57 of the Penal Code is only for the purpose of working out the fractions of the maximum sentence fixed for the principal offence, that is to say, if such provision is not made, it would have been impossible to work out the fractions of an indefinite term.”
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