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ਪਿਛਲੇ
ਇੱਕ ਸਾਲ ਤੋਂ ਭਾਰਤ ਦੇ ਰਾਸ਼ਟਰਪਤੀ ਪ੍ਰਤਿਭਾ ਪਾਟਿਲ ਨੇ ਫਾਂਸੀ ਦੀਆਂ ਚੌਦਾਂ ਮਾਫੀ ਦੀਆਂ ਅਰਜ਼ੀਆਂ
ਨੂੰ ਮੰਜ਼ੂਰ ਕੀਤਾ ਹੈ
The Union Ministry of Law has told the Ministry of
Home Affairs (MHA) that the power of the President to grant pardons, reprieves,
respites or remissions of punishment, which is granted under Article 72 of the
Constitution, is "absolute and cannot be fettered by any statutory provisions"
under the Code of Criminal Procedure or the prison rules.
In a legal opinion sent to the MHA sometime back, former law secretary T K
Vishwanathan also clarified that life imprisonment means "imprisonment for the
whole of the remaining period of the convicted person's natural life and not 14
years in prison" as is widely understood.
He has also said that while commuting the death sentence, the President can
direct that the convict prisoner will remain in prison for the whole of his
natural life and will not be released by way of remission of the prison term.
It is learnt that Home Minister P Chidambaram had sought the Law Ministry's
opinion on whether the President had the authority to commute the death sentence
to life imprisonment; if life imprisonment meant 14 years in prison or more and,
third, while commuting the death sentence, if the President could direct that
the convict prisoner would remain in prison for the whole of his natural life.
In the past one year, President Pratibha Patil
has commuted death sentences of 14 death row convicts by accepting their mercy
petitions.
Among the people she has saved from the gallows are
Piara Singh and his three
sons, who had been given death sentence for killing 17 persons, and R Govindsamy,
who had murdered five people.
In all cases, the President went by the advice of the Union Home Ministry that
the death sentences be commuted to life imprisonment without parole. However,
the MHA is yet to take a call on the mercy petition filed by Parliament attack
case convict Mohd Afzal Guru though the Delhi government has recommended that
the mercy plea be rejected.
In his opinion, Vishwanathan has said that there is a popular misconception that
life imprisonment means just 14 years in prison. While earlier the practice was
to release the lifer after 14 years in jail, the Supreme Court has in a series
of judgments held that sentence for imprisonment for life ordinarily means
imprisonment for the whole of the remaining period of the convicted person's
natural life.
On the issue of the President's power to commute death sentence, Vishwanathan
has said, "The President while exercising his powers under Article 72 of the
Constitution can commute the death sentence to one of life imprisonment just as
the courts can do under the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973."
To the Home Minister's query on whether while commuting the death sentence, the
President can direct that the convict prisoner would remain in prison for the
whole of his natural life without ever being released after securing remission
of the prison term, Vishwanathan, who is now Secretary General, Lok Sabha,
replied in the affirmative.
"In a series of judgments, the Supreme Court has dealt with this issue and has
ruled that the sentence for 'imprisonment for life' ordinarily means
imprisonment for the whole of the remaining period of the convicted person's
natural life; that a convict undergoing such sentence may earn remissions of his
part of sentence under the Prison Rules but such remissions in the absence of an
order of an appropriate government authority remitting the entire balance of his
sentence under this section does not entitle the convict to be released
automatically before the full life term if served. Since the power under Article
72 is plenary, the President while commuting a death sentence to life
imprisonment is empowered to direct that the convict prisoner shall remain in
prison for the whole of his natural life and there shall be no remission of the
prison term," the opinion says.
Source:
http://in.news.yahoo.com/presidents-power-pardon-death-absolute.html |
