The Supreme Court stated on Friday that a High Court cannot exercise its power of remission while exercising its judicial review authority.  The court remarked that the offender had gained weight nine months prior, thus returning him to custody and having the State examine the plea for remission would be ineffective.

We are in agreement with the submission of learned counsel for the petitioner in this behalf that it was not within the domain of judicial review for the learned judge to have himself exercised the power of remission. However, we would not like to exercise jurisdiction under Article 136 of the Constitution of India at this stage as the respondent stands enlarged 9 months back and no purpose would be served in sending him back to custody and for the State to once again examine the request for remission.", the bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Abhay S. Oka observed.

In this instance, the murder offender had already served 14 years and 6 months of his original sentence and 12 years and 9 months of remission when he asked to be released early. As a result of the authorities' continued inaction, he approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court and filed a writ suit. On the grounds that the request for remission was covered by the policy, the High Court granted the request itself.

The State of Haryana challenged this order before the Supreme Court, arguing that the judge should not have exercised his or her authority in this case and should simply have instructed that the subject of remission be considered by the relevant authorities and/or set a deadline for making a decision.

The Supreme Court noted in another ruling [Ram Chander vs. State of Chhattisgarh | 2022 LiveLaw (SC) 401] that while it may review a government decision to see if it was arbitrary, it could not usurp that authority and provide remission on its own. The court further observed The authorities may be instructed to reevaluate the convict's case if the executive's use of power is shown to be capricious.  

Case details:

State of Haryana vs Daya Nand

SLP(Crl) 10687/2022

Read the Complete order on the following link:-

https://main.sci.gov.in/supremecourt/2022/29470/29470_2022_2_4_39518_Order_10-Nov-2022.pdf