Life term means 30 years in jail if ‘till natural death’ isn’t mentioned: Appellate Division

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court today ruled that life imprisonment means the convict will have to be in jail for 30 years and will get remission and deduction benefits under relevant sections of the Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) if it's not specifically mentioned in the verdict that the convict is sentenced to imprisonment until natural death.

However, the apex court said that life imprisonment apparently means jail sentence for the whole of the remaining period of his or her natural life.

If the courts concerned, including the International Crimes Tribunal, sentence the convict to imprisonment for life, till his or her natural death, he or she will not get the benefits under the Penal Code and CrPC, the SC observed in a short verdict.

"Imprisonment for life prima facie means the whole of the remaining period of the convict's natural life. Imprisonment for life be deemed to equivalent to imprisonment for 30 years if sections 45 and 53 are read together along with sections 55 and 57 of the Penal Code and 35A of the Code of Criminal Procedure," it said.

However, in case of sentence awarded to the convict for imprisonment for life till natural death by the court /tribunal, International Crimes Tribunal under International Crimes Tribunals Act, 1973, the convict will not be entitled to get the benefit of section 35A of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the apex court said in the short verdict.

A seven-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain delivered the verdict by majority decision following a review petition filed by a convict, Ataur Mridha.

The SC did not disclose the names of its judges who gave consent to the decision and who did not.

Mohammad Shishir Manir, a lawyer for Ataur Mridha, told The Daily Star that more than 5,000 prisoners who have been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by the courts will have to serve in jail for 30 years and they will get remission for seven and half years and the tenures they have already served in jail will be deducted from the 30 years' jail sentence.

He said the SC in its short verdict did not disclose whether his client Ataur Mridha will have to serve in jail till his natural death or for 30 years.

This issue will be cleared when the SC will release the full text of the verdict, Shishir Manir added.

Ataur Mridha filed the review petition challenging an apex court verdict that on February 14, 2017 commuted his death penalty to life imprisonment in a murder case.

The Appellate Division bench headed by the then Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha at that time said life imprisonment means jail sentence until natural death of the convict.

Mridha submitted the petition to the SC seeking review of its judgment the same year.

He said, in the review petition, that under Section 57 of the Penal Code, life sentence refers to 30 years' prison term, which becomes 22.5 years after the seven-and-a-half years' remission.

During hearing the review petition, the apex court had earlier heard expert opinions from four amicus curiae (friends of court) -- senior lawyers AF Hasan Ariff, Rokanuddin Mahmud, Abdur Rezak Khan and AM Aminuddin -- on the issue.

Lawyers Khandker Mahbub Hossain and Mohammad Shishir Manir appeared for the petitioner while Attorney General AM Amin Uddin argued for the state on November 24.