State the powers of the State Government to suspend, remit, and commute sentences.

Question: State the powers of the State Government to suspend, remit, and commute sentences.

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Answer

The legal provisions which empower the government to exercise the powers regarding suspension, commutation, and remission are under Sections 432 and 433 of the CrPC.

Section 432 empowers the Government to remit wholly or in part the sentence of fine, which is a substantive sentence but not the sentence of imprisonment in default of payment of fine. The imprisonment that a person is ordered to suffer for nonpayment of a fine is only contingent imprisonment. It can be avoided by the payment of a fine before the substantive term of imprisonment comes to an end. It cannot, therefore, be tacked on to the substantive sentence of imprisonment, at any rate, until the substantive sentence ends.

Section 432 of CrPC: Power to suspend or remit sentences

• When any person has been sentenced to punishment for an offence, the appropriate Government may, at any time, without conditions or upon any conditions, which the person sentenced, accepts, suspend the execution of his sentence or remit the whole or any part of the punishment to which he has been sentenced.
• Whenever the application is made to the appropriate Government for the suspension or remission of a sentence, the appropriate Government may require the presiding Judge of the Court before or by which the conviction was had or confirmed to state his opinion as to whether the application should be granted or refused, together with his reasons for such opinion and also to forward with the statement of such opinion a certified copy of the record of trial or of such record thereof as exists.
• If any condition on which a sentence has been suspended or remitted is, in the opinion of the appropriate Government, not fulfilled, the appropriate Government may cancel the suspension or remission, and thereupon the person in whose favour the sentence has been suspended or remitted may if at large, be arrested by any police officer, without a warrant and remanded to undergo the unexpired portion of the sentence.
• The condition on which a sentence is suspended or remitted under this section may be one to be fulfilled by the person in whose favour the sentence is suspended or remitted or one independent of his will.
• The appropriate Government may, by general rules or special orders, give directions as to the suspension of sentences and the conditions on which petitions should be presented and dealt with: Provided that in the case of any sentence (other than a sentence of fine) passed on a male person above the age of eighteen years, no such petition by the person sentenced or by any other person on his behalf shall be entertained, unless the person sentenced is in jail, and:
• Where such a petition is made by the person sentenced, it is presented through the officer in charge of the jail; or
• Where any other person makes such a petition, it contains a declaration that the person sentenced is in jail.
• The above sub-sections shall also apply to any order passed by a Criminal Court under any section of this Code or any other law which restricts the liberty of any person or imposes any liability upon him or his property.

In this section and in section 433, the expression “appropriate Government” means:

1. in cases where the sentence is for an offence against, or the order referred to in subsection 6 is passed under, any law relating to a matter to which the executive power of the Union extends, the Central Government;
2. in other cases, the Government of the State within which the offender is sentenced, or the said order is passed.

Moreover, section 433 of the code provides for the power to commute sentences. It states that:

“The appropriate Government may, without the consent of the person sentenced commute—

• a sentence of death, for any other punishment provided by the Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860);
• a sentence of imprisonment for life, for imprisonment for a term not exceeding fourteen years, or for a fine;
• a sentence of rigorous imprisonment, for simple imprisonment for any term to which that person might have been sentenced, or for a fine;
• a sentence of simple imprisonment, for fine.”

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