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Case Comment: Sadhu Singh Vs. State Of Punjab Air 1984 SC 739




Ritul Nagarkar, Symbiosis Law School Nagpur


INTRODUCTION FACTS


  • The Supreme Court’s Landmark judgment of Sadhu Singh vs State of Punjab displays the intersection of the rules given under the Punjab Prison Manual and the executive instructions issued in 1971 and 1976 which override the rules given in the manual.


  • The issue was whether the rules had statutory force, and such authorities had a power to amend the rules, and alter by executive instructions


  • The remission rules were governed by Para 516-B of the Punjab jail manual which provided remission rules for the premature release of adult prisoners and female prisoners and young convicts below the age of 20 years.


  • The petitioners in the case were lifers (convicts sentenced to life imprisonment before 18 December 1978 when section 433 Crpc came into force which provides for procedure of commutation of sentence


  • The qualifying period for adult male prisoners was 14 years inclusive of remission and qualifying period for female and young offenders was 10 years. In 1971 the state government issued instructions which amended and altered the rules provided in the manual.


  • 1971 instructions modified the rules pertaining to the premature release of the prisoners, it provided that the adult prisoners who completed 8 1⁄2 years and the female prisoners and the offenders below the age of 20 who completed 6 years were eligible to have their case for premature release.


  • After completion of the sentence for premature release, the Punjab Government was supposed to issue the case to the Inspector General of prison of Punjab with a request

    to direct the superintendent of jail to submit cases for premature release.


    • Again in 1976 the Punjab government issued instructions for the prisoners who were sentence to death and later their sentence got commuted to life imprisonment by mercy petition and provided that such convicts should complete 14 years of sentence to consider their case for premature release.



Indian Journal of Law and Legal Research

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