Supreme Court Orders MP Govt To Pay Rs 25 Lakhs Compensation To Convict Who Spent Extra 4.7 Years In Jail After Serving Sentence

A bench comprising Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice KV Viswanathan passed an order after coming down heavily on the State of Madhya Pradesh for its lapse, which led to the over-incarceration of the convict. Initially, when the notice was issued to the State of Madhya Pradesh, the Court noted that the convict had suffered 8 extra years of incarceration. But the Court was today informed by Senior Advocate Nachiketa Joshi (for State of Madhya Pradesh) that the convict was out on bail for some time. 

The Court granted compensation considering the 4.7 years of extra incarceration suffered by the convict as informed by Advocate Mahfooz A. Nazki (for the convict). It also questioned the State's counsel for filing "misleading" affidavits in this matter. It disposed of the matter with a direction to the Madhya Pradesh Legal Services Authority to carry out an exercise to find similarly placed persons. 

To put it briefly, the petitioner was convicted in 2004 by a Sessions Court in Madhya Pradesh for an offence punishable under Section 376(1), 450 and 560B of the Indian Penal Code and was sentenced to life imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 2,000. In Appeal, the Madhya Pradesh High Court in 2007 partly allowed his appeal and reduced his sentence to 7 years. However, it was only in June, this year, the petitioner came to be released from jail after having spent an additional of more than eight years imprisoned.

Case Details: SOHAN SINGH @ BABLU v STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH