Is Bilkis Bano a Lesser daughter of India?

Is Bilkis Bano a Lesser daughter of India?

The remission of convicts in the Bilkis Bano Case have been making headlines, as the remission has outraged many while some are celebrating. Is this the fist time when remission has been given in a rape case? Well there have been instances where remission has been given in heinous crimes and convicts have been released, In 2022 another such remission made headlines when The convict of Jessica Lal Murder case Manu Sharma was granted remission from his 24years and 4 months sentence, as he was released after 17 years of imprisonment.

Thinkers like G.W.F Hegel have often reasoned that the criminals are to be penalized for the offence they have committed, yet they have the right to be honoured as coherent beings when the establishments perpetrate the punishment on them.

The criminal jurisprudence across the globe has come a long way from using punishment for imparting fear is the public to understanding punishment as a species of secular penance, that aims to coax reprobates to repentance, serf-reform and resolve. India has engaged several positive steps in this way  as can be seem in the  Indian Supreme Court’s recent unearthing of a relapsing punishment and reintroducing it in today’s time has taken us a step backwards in our thrive to achieve a modern, reformatory criminal justice system.

 In India, the sentence of life imprisonment in certain cases, when subject to remission, normally works out to a term of 14 years, however after the case of Union of India vs. V. Sriharan (2016), where a five judge bench of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India adjudicated the matter, a special category of punishment can be imposed by the concerned High Court and the Supreme Court providing for a specific term of incarceration without the possibility or opportunity of remission.

But one needs to understand in case of mass murders, multiple heinous offence, crimes against humanity the mentality of an accused is in such state of mind that the accused may have very few chances to rehabilitate, and they may become a threat to the society.

Remission is not a right It is true that no prisoner can seek remission as a matter of right. However, if a statute or statutory Rule or a Policy of the State Government provides for grant of remission in terms thereof a prisoner is entitled to be considered for grant of remission. The right of the prisoner is confined to the consideration his case for granting remission in accordance with law.

What also needs to be taken consideration is As observed earlier, in the case of State of Haryana Vs. Mohinder Singh & Ors , the decision to grant remission has to be reasonable and fair to all the concerned and that the grant of remission is statutory. The object of providing for judicial appraisal is to ensure that the Order or the Policy or the Rules of the State Government for grant of remissions are applied and implemented reasonably and fairly. When a Judicial Officer makes a judicial appraisal of the entitlement of the prisoner for grant of the State remission under the said Government Circular, the scope of judicial appraisal is to examine whether the case of the prisoner is covered by the Order contained in the said Government Resolution/Circular.

No reasonable classification has been made for the remission that was granted to convicts in the Bano Case, what is also need to be taken into consideration is that the remission has been done taking the old rules into consideration and new 2014 law is been ignored can an old law have prospective effect, is another question that needs answering