States must consider remission of eligible convicts even without their application: Supreme Court

States and Union Territories with a policy for the permanent remission of convicts must consider their early release even without a request from the prisoners or their family, the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday.

The bench of Justices AS Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan noted that if a remission policy is in place, governments cannot limit relief to only those who apply under the policy.

“Such conduct on the part of the states will be discriminatory and arbitrary and amount to a violation of Article 14 of the Constitution,” the bench said.

“The power under Section 432(1) must be exercised in a fair and reasonable manner,” the court added. “Therefore, whenever there is a policy for consideration of cases for permanent remission, it becomes an obligation of the State to consider cases of every eligible convict under the policy.”

Section 432(1) of the 1973 Code of Criminal Procedure grants the government the authority to suspend or reduce a convicted person’s sentence.

The court also directed states and Union Territories that do not have a remission policy to frame one within two months.

The judgement came in a suo motu case on the policy strategy for granting bail. It addressed the remission policy of states, focusing on its implementation even without a convict’s application and whether conditions can…

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