Uttarakhand High Court
WPCRL/232/2021 on 5 May, 2021
Office Notes, reports, orders
SL. or proceedings or directions
Date COURT'S OR JUDGES'S ORDERS
No and Registrar's order with
Signatures
WPCRL No.232 of 2021
Hon'ble R.C. Khulbe, J.
Mr. Manan Kumar Mishra, learned senior
counsel assisted by Mr. Aditya Singh, learned
counsel for the appellant.
Mr. G.S. Sandhu with Mr. V.S Rathore,
learned AGA for the State.
The petitioner- Madhumani Tripathi has filed
this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of
India for issuance of a writ in the nature of
mandamus commanding the respondents to release
the petitioner in terms of the provisions contained
under Sections 432, 433 and 433-A of the Code of
Criminal Procedure.
The learned senior counsel for the writ
petitioner submitted that the writ petitioner has
served more than 18 years, including remission, in
jail. She moved an application before the Remission
Committee constituted by the Uttar Pradesh
Government, which referred the matter to the State
of Uttarakhand for its consideration. But the State
of Uttarakhand has not considered her matter as yet.
Heard learned counsel for the parties.
From the record, it appears that vide judgment
and order dated 24.10.2007, the writ petitioner was
convicted by the Special Judge/Sessions Judge,
CBI, Dehradun, and she was sentenced to undergo
imprisonment for life. Aggrieved by the said
judgment, Crl. Appeal No.529 of 2007, along with
other criminal appeals, was preferred before the
High Court. A Division Bench of this Court, vide
its order dated 16.7.2012, dismissed the appeals and
affirmed the lower court's order.
Section 432(1) Cr.P.C. envisages that when
any person has been sentenced to punishment for an
offence, the appropriate Government may, at any
time, without conditions or upon any conditions
which the person sentenced accepts, suspend the
execution of his sentence or remit the whole or any
part of the punishment to which he has been
sentenced.
A restriction was imposed u/s 433-A Cr.P.C.
which stipulates that notwithstanding anything
contained in section 432, where a sentence of
imprisonment for life is imposed on conviction of a
person for an offence for which death is one of the
punishment provided by laws, or where a sentence
of death imposed on a person has been commuted
under section 433 into one of imprisonment for life,
such person shall not be released from prison unless
he had served at least fourteen years of
imprisonment.
From a perusal of the record, it appears that
the writ petitioner has completed more than 14
years in jail. Although, she submitted an application
before the Govt. of Uttar Pradesh for granting the
benefit u/s 432 Cr.P.C. but the said request was
forwarded to the Govt. of Uttarakhand for
consideration because the appropriate government is
the Govt. of Uttarakhand. The expression
'appropriate government' has been defined under
sub-section 7 of Section 432 of Cr.P.C.
From a perusal of the above section, it is clear
that the 'appropriate government' in this case is the
Government of Uttarakhand.
The writ petitioner is a lady and she is aged
about 65 years. As per the above provisions, the
writ petitioner is entitled to move an application for
getting the benefit u/s 432 Cr.P.C. before the
appropriate government.
Accordingly, the writ petition is disposed of
with the direction that in case the writ petitioner
moves an application seeking remission under the
Cr.P.C., the 'appropriate Committee' constituted by
the State Government will consider and decide the
same, strictly in accordance with law, as early as
possible, preferably within 45 days from the date all
necessary formalities are complete which are
required to be made in this regard.
Pending application, if any, stands disposed
of.
(R.C. Khulbe, J.)
05.05.2021
Rdang
