Can life sentences be turned into fixed terms? SC to decide

NEW DELHI: Supreme Court agreed on Wednesday to examine whether a constitutional court can award a sentence of specific number of years to a convict in a heinous crime in substitution of life sentence imposed by a trial court, and said it was prima facie of the view that fixed term sentences could be handed down in lieu of death penalty.”Can a constitutional court convert a life sentence into a fixed term incarceration,” asked a bench of CJI BR Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran while dealing with an appeal filed by a former Roman Catholic church vicar who was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for sexually assaulting a minor girl but the Kerala HC modified it to 20 years in jail without remission.The bench said it was primarily of the opinion that a fixed term sentence without remission could be awarded only in cases where a constitutional court maintains a person’s conviction for a heinous offence but feels that the award of capital punishment was excessive as the case did not fall in the “rarest of rare” category.The bench said it will examine this question while dealing with the quantum of punishment to be awarded to former vicar Edwin Pigarez. In March last year, the HC had sentenced him to undergo incarceration of 20 years without remission. A fixed term sentence of 20 or 30 years or till the end of natural life of a convict in lieu of death sentence is awarded by constitutional courts as they are increasingly becoming averse to capital punishment, and at the same time, realise that imposition of life sentence would entitle a convict to seek remission of sentence after being lodged in jail for 14 years. Accepting senior advocate R Basant’s plea for bail during pendency of his appeal, the CJI-led bench said the relief is being given as Pigarez has already undergone almost 10 years of imprisonment, which is half of the sentence imposed by the HC.Pigarez was convicted for sexually assaulting the class VIII girl several times between 2014 and 2015 at the presbytery. The girl was a parishioner at the church of which Pigarez was vicar then. The girl’s mother had lodged a complaint with police on Apr 1, 2015. The trial court had convicted him under the IPC and several provisions of POCSO Act and sentenced him to life imprisonment.