NEW DELHI: Sushil Sharma, a youth Congress leader who hit the headlines for one of the most chilling murders that Delhi has ever witnessed, was on Friday ordered to be freed immediately by the Delhi High Court. Serving life term for the murder of his wife Naina Sahni, Sharma has already undergone over two decades of incarceration. The case also known as the Tandoor murder case dates back to 1995, when Sharma objecting to Naina’s alleged relationship with his friend, shot her dead, chopped her body into pieces and attempted to burn it in an oven.
Sharma had appealed against the lower court verdict of 2003 in the Delhi High Court but received a setback as the High Court upheld the lower court’s death sentence. He then appealed to the Supreme Court, which upheld his conviction, but commuted his death sentence to life in 2013.
The high court set aside and quashed the recommendations of the Sentence Review Board (SRB), which had rejected Sharma’s representation for pre-mature release. It also set aside SRB’s recommendations by the Lieutenant Governor, who is the competent authority.Sharma, who is in prison since 1995, had contended that he has already undergone the maximum prescribed sentence as mandated under the SRB guidelines.
Advocate Amit Sahni, appearing for Sharma, had said guidelines on premature release state that life convicts sentenced for a single offence are to be released after completion of 20 years of incarceration and those who had committed heinous crimes are to be granted the relief after 25 years. In his petition, Sharma contended even though his case falls in the first category, he had also undergone 29 years of incarceration, with remission, and 23 years and six months, without remission.
NO CONFUSION ON LIFE TERM
In many rulings, the SC has clarified that life imprisonment means the convict spends his/her remaining life in jail. In many judgments, the courts are specifying that life in life imprisonment means ‘life’. The Constitution, however, itself grants Governors the power to remit sentences. States can release convicts earlier despite the courts saying ‘life means life’ as their power, derived from the Constitution, cannot be limited by the courts. States have set up Sentence Review Boards. While a convict does not have a right to be released automatically after serving 14 years, he becomes eligible for consideration by the Board.