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The top court held that once the conviction under Section 302 IPC was maintained, reduction of sentence to sentence already undergone which was less than imprisonment for life was contrary to Section 302 IPC and accordingly unsustainable.
The Supreme Court on Friday held that there cannot be any sentence/punishment less than imprisonment for life, if an accused is convicted for the offence punishable under Section 302 Indian Penal Code (IPC).
A bench of Justices MR Shah and Krishna Murari noted that the punishment for murder under Section 302 IPC shall be death or imprisonment for life and fine, and therefore, the minimum sentence provided for the offence punishable under Section 302 IPC would be imprisonment for life and fine.
"Any punishment less than the imprisonment for life for the offence punishable under Section 302 would be contrary to Section 302 IPC", thus held the division bench.
the top court made these observations while allowing an appeal filed by the State of Madhya Pradesh wherein it had challenged the high court's order partly allowing the appeal preferred by accused Nandu, reducing the sentence from life imprisonment to the sentence already undertone while maintaining his conviction for the offences under Sections 147, 148, 323 and 302/34 of IPC
Deputy Advocate General Ankita Chaudhary, appearing for State of MP argued before the top court that once an accused is held to be guilty for the offence punishable under Section 302 IPC, the minimum sentence, which is imposable would be the imprisonment for life and, therefore, any punishment/sentence less than the imprisonment for life shall be contrary to Section 302 of the IPC.
Considering the impugned judgment by which the conviction was maintained under Section 302 IPC, but the sentence was reduced to one already undergone, i.e., seven years and ten months, the top court held that the same was impermissible and unsustainable.
"The judgment and order passed by the learned Trial Court imposing the life imprisonment is hereby restored. Now, the respondent – accused to be arrested and to undergo life imprisonment for which we give eight weeks’ time to the accused to surrender before the concerned Court/Jail Authority", ordered the court.
Case Title: The State of Madhya Pradesh vs. Nandu @ Nandua
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