The Supreme Court has set aside the Odisha State Sentence Review Board’s (SSRB) decision rejecting the remission/premature release plea of a life convict who has spent around 19 years in custody, directing the Board to reconsider the case afresh under the applicable remission rules.
A Bench of Justice K.V. Viswanathan and Justice Arun Palli was considering a challenge to the Orissa High Court judgment upholding the conviction under Section 302 IPC and sentence of life imprisonment. The Supreme Court had earlier declined to interfere with the conviction but directed the State to examine the plea for remission after the petitioner submitted that he had undergone 19 years in custody.
The SSRB had rejected the plea after relying on a report from the district authorities stating that premature release could be prejudicial to public peace and tranquillity and that the petitioner might abscond after committing another offence.
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The Supreme Court found the reasons wholly unsatisfactory, observing that the State’s affidavit made only a vague reference to a confidential ground-level inquiry. The Court noted that it did not disclose which authority had conducted the inquiry or on what basis the inquiry had concluded against premature release.
The Court also noted that the petitioner had not been released on any kind of leave during his 19 years in custody and that the affidavit did not identify any specific provision of the applicable remission rules that rendered him ineligible for remission.
Holding that the relevant considerations had not been properly addressed, the Court set aside the SSRB’s proceedings dated August 5, 2026 and directed the Board to reconsider the remission case de novo, carefully examining all relevant factors under the applicable rules. The exercise is to be completed within eight weeks, with the fresh proceedings and compliance affidavit to be placed before the Supreme Court by October 16, 2026.
