New Delhi, Sep 2 : The Supreme Court on Friday said there can be no sentence that is less than the rest of their lives, if an accused is found guilty of murder, an offense which is punishable by Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).A bench of Justices M.R.Shah and Krishna Murari said: “There can be no sentence or punishment lower than life-long imprisonment when the accused is found guilty of the offense which is punishable under Section 302 IPC.Any punishment other than lifetime imprisonment of the crime which is punishable under Section 302 is contrary to Section 302 IPC.”
The bench also noted that the punishment for murder in Section 302 IPC will be the death penalty or life imprisonment, and fine, so the minimum sentence is the imprisonment for life and fine.
The highest court ruling was based on an appeal brought by Madhya Pradesh government challenging the Madhya Pradesh High Court judgment in which the court partially accepted the appeal made by the defendant – accused Nandu at Nandua and decreased the sentence from life imprisonment to that with an undertone, while retaining his conviction on the crimes under Sections 323 (sections 147, 148, 147, and 302/34 of the IPC.
The highest court observed that when the court had passed the judgment and order to reduce the sentence, and the length of sentence served by the defendant was seven years and 10 months.”Though the High Court has maintained the conviction of the defendant, who was who was convicted of the crime pursuant to Section 302 IPC however, while the High Court has reduced the sentence to the one that was already served, i.e., seven years and 10 months.We are of the opinion that this is inadmissible and not sustainable,” it said.
It was said that the high court reduced the sentence to a the sentence that has already been served, that is lower than life imprisonment which is contrary to the provisions of Section 302 IPC and is not sustainable.”The ruling and order that the high court has made reduces the sentence of the respondent accused to the sentence he has already served while preserving the conviction of the respondent who was who was convicted of the offense under Sections 147 323 and 148 302/34 of the IPC is hereby annulled and removed.The order and judgment issued by the court of trial that imposed the life imprisonment of the accused is hereby reinstated,” said the bench.
The judge ordered the accused to appear before the court in 8 weeks for a life imprisonment.
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