Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 16: State High Court today dismissed the petition filed by Ashiq Hussain Factoo, husband of Asiya Andrabi, a leader of Dukhtaran-e-Millat, seeking release after under going 14 years imprisonment.
The grievances of petitioner were that he laid a motion before the Superintendent of Jail, Srinagar seeking his release from the detention on the ground that he has already served the period of sentence— imprisonment for life.
“Since the respondents have failed to redress petitioner’s grievance, he was left with no option but to invoke the jurisdiction of this Court by the medium of present writ petition”, the counsel for Ashiq Hussain submitted before the High Court and prayed that directions be issued to the respondents to release the petitioner from detention as he has already completed 20 years and 11 days of sentence as on May 31, 2012.
It is pertinent to mention here that the petitioner was facing trial before the Presiding Officer, Designated Court under TADA (P) Act. After completion of the trial, he was acquitted vide judgment and order dated July 14, 2001. However, State questioned the judgment before the Apex Court by the medium of appeal.
The criminal appeal came to be allowed and the order of acquittal was set aside. The petitioner was convicted for the commission of offences punishable under Section 3 of Terrorists & Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, 1987 read with Sections 302 and 120-B of Indian Penal Code and was sentenced to life imprisonment vide judgment and order dated January 30, 2003.
After hearing Advocate M A Qayoom for the petitioner whereas Senior AAG AM Magray for the State, Justice Mansoor Ahmed Mir referred various judgments and observed, “a distinction between imprisonment for life and imprisonment for a term has been maintained in the Indian Penal Code in several of its provisions and moreover, whenever an offender is punishable with imprisonment for life he is not punishable with imprisonment which may be of either description within the meaning of Section 60 IPC”.
“We cannot come to the conclusion that the court, by itself, could release the convict automatically before the full life term is served. This aspect was highlighted in Gopal Vinayak Godse Versus State of Maharashtra wherein it was held that sentence for imprisonment for life ordinarily means imprisonment for the whole of the remaining period of the convicted person’s natural life”, the High Court said.
While referring to various judgments, Justice Mir dismissed the petition along with all connected CMPs.
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