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Apart from the question of the authority of the State to impose such conditions, other important question is whether the grant of remission can be conditional which is open to revocation, the division bench said
The Supreme Court has decided to examine the legal question whether "the remission can be granted to a convict with a condition and the relief can be withdrawn on infraction of such a condition".
"Apart from the question of the authority of the State to impose such conditions, other important question is whether the grant of remission can be conditional which is open to revocation, as provided in the second condition," a bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Pankaj Mithal said.
The court also sought to know from the Gujarat government the time taken for deciding remission petitions and the number of writ petitions filed by the convicts questioning delay.
The court was hearing a plea filed by one Mafabhai Motibhai Sagar. In his case, the top court noted that after a long delay, the Gujarat Government had ultimately passed an order on September 15, 2023 of granting permanent remission to the petitioner. However, the state government imposed four conditions in its remission order.
"Prima facie, we find that condition Nos.1 to 3 could not have been imposed after coming to the conclusion that this was a fit case to exercise power of the State Government under Section 432 of the Code of Criminal Procedure," the bench said.
Gujarat government counsel Swati Ghildiyal sought time to file an affidavit for justifying these conditions.
"Apart from filing an affidavit, the State will have to satisfy us whether such conditions can be lawfully imposed and whether the policy of the State Government provides for incorporating such conditions," the bench asked her.
The apex court asked the State Government to also explain the normal time span taken by it to consider the cases for the grant of permanent remission.
"The State will also inform the Court whether a specific time line has been prescribed for taking decisions on the prayer for grant of permanent remission. The State Government will also point out before the Court how many Writ Petitions are pending in the constitutional Courts making grievances about the non-consideration of the prayer for grant of remission," the bench told the counsel.
The court scheduled the matter for hearing on November 24, while giving the state government time till November 22 to file its affidavit.
Case Title: MAFABHAI MOTIBHAI SAGAR VERSUS STATE OF GUJARAT & ORS
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