Judicial Dictionary
The Constitution Bench judgment of this Court in Union of India Vs. V. Sriharan @ Murugan and Others 2016(7) SCC 1, which is extracted hereunder:
“105. We, therefore, reiterate that the power derived from the Penal Code for any modified punishment within the punishment provided for in the Penal Code for such specified offences can only be exercised by the High Court and in the event of further appeal only by the Supreme Court and not by any other court in this country. To put it differently, the power to impose a modified punishment providing for any specific term of incarceration or till the end of the convict’s life as an alternate to death penalty, can be exercised only by the High Court and the Supreme Court and not by any other inferior court.
106. Viewed in that respect, we state that the ratio laid down in Swamy Shraddananda (2) v. State of Karnataka, (2008) 13 SCC 767 that a special category of sentence; instead of death; for a term exceeding 14 years and put that category beyond application of remission is well founded and we answer the said question in the affirmative. We are, therefore, not in agreement with the opinion expressed by this Court in Sangeet v. State of Haryana (2013) 2 SCC 452 that the deprival of remission power of the appropriate Government by awarding sentences of 20 or 25 years or without any remission as not permissible is not in consonance with the law and we specifically overrule the same.”
Refer also- SUPREME COURT – GAURI SHANKAR VERSUS STATE OF PUNJAB – CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 135 OF 2021
