Sunday, September 18 2005 16:20 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Clearing all doubts about what 'imprisonment for life' means, the Supreme Court has said such a sentence should be treated as whole of the remaining period of the convict's natural life and not 14 years or 20 years in jail.

"There is no provision either in the Indian Penal Code or in the Code of Criminal Procedure whereby life imprisonment could be treated as 14 years or 20 years without there being a formal revision by the Government," a Bench comprising Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice B N Srikrishna said.

Maintaining that the imprisonment for life was a class of punishment different from ordinary punishment, which could be of two descriptions namely, 'rigorous' or 'simple', Justice Balakrishnan said, "we are of the view that imprisonment for life is to be treated as rigorous imprisonment for life".

The ruling came on a petition filed by a life convict from West Bengal contending that after undergoing more than 21 years imprisonment, his further detention was illegal and he was liable to be set free with a compensation for remaining in jail beyond the period of 14 years.

However, the court did not accept the argument and said the petitioner was not entitled to be released on the ground urged by him in the petition "so long as there is no order of remission passed by the appropriate government in his favour".