New Delhi, 6 March
The Supreme Court reiterated that a trial court, while awarding a sentence of life imprisonment to an accused, cannot order that such imprisonment be for the remainder of his natural life.
A bench headed by Justice Ajay Rastogi modified the term of life imprisonment for the remaining natural life of convict Narendra Singh convicted by a trial court in Rajasthan and confirmed a simple life imprisonment by the HC. “We have heard learned counsel for the parties and after taking note of the decision of the Constitution Bench of this court (in the case of V Sriharan) in 2016 … the sentence of life imprisonment which shall be extended to the remainder of the life passed by the scholar 19 The trial court from the December, 2013 judgment, and affirmed by the HC on dismissal of the appeal, is amended with the punishment of life imprisonment,” the bench said in its February 28 order.
In Sriharan’s case, a Constitution Bench had ruled that the power to impose a modified sentence for any specific jail term or imprisonment till the end of life of the convict as a substitute for the death penalty can be exercised only by the HC and SC. and not by any other court. ,