New Delhi: Half of a life sentence would mean jail for 10 years even in cases related to the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The Bombay High Court said this while clarifying an order passed by another bench of the high court earlier.
The connection dates back to 2018 and a plea for clarification where an accused was sent to prison in a case under the POCSO Act and was sentenced to “rigorous imprisonment for one-half of the imprisonment for life.” The Superintendent of the Kolhapur Central Prison, where the accused is lodged, said he could not understand exactly how much sentence the accused has to undergo.
The Jail Superintendent had requested guidance from the Sessions Court at Sangli where the trial was conducted. The Additional Sessions Judge and District Judge Sangli informed the Superintendent, Kolhapur Central Prison, that since the order was passed by the high court, it would be proper if guidance was sought from the high court. The jail superintendent then wrote a letter to the high court registry seeking clarification, according to a report in India Today.
Justice Sarang Kotwal appointed advocate Drupad Patil as amicus curiae to assist the court. Assistant Public Prosecutor Yogesh Dabke as well as Patil argued that the Superintendent should have approached the Law and Judiciary Department and the Home Department for seeking guidance instead of approaching this court when there was no ambiguity or confusion in the operative part of the judgment.
However, Justice Kotwal looked through the definition of life imprisonment and said, “The wording ‘life imprisonment’ is not defined under the POCSO Act. However, those words are used under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and, therefore, reference will have to be made to IPC provisions and they will have to be relied on. In this particular question, the quantum of sentence is to be looked at. When it is mentioned that it should be one-half of life imprisonment, then the exact meaning will have to be found in the IPC,” the report added.
Section 57 of the Indian Penal Code defines life imprisonment as 20 years. Justice Kotwal said, “This section leaves no scope for doubt, ambiguity or confusion as to how the term should be calculated when the accused is sentenced to suffer half of life imprisonment.”
