S. NAGAMUTHU,J.

1. "Human dignity, emphasised in the preamble, compassion, implicit in the prescription of fair procedure in Article 21, and the irrationality of arbitrary incarceratory brutality violative of Article 14 invest the demand for a reformatory component in jail regimen with the status of a constitutional requirement." This is what Hon'ble Mr.Justice V.R.Krishna Iyer, speaking for the majority in Maru Ram Vs. Union of India (1981 1 SCC 107), put it very aptly about the objective of sentencing.

2. In the jail context, "Parole" is a common language often spoken to in the jails and off the jails by the inmates and their kith and kin. What do we really mean by the term

"parole" in the legal sense of it and whether the same amounts to suspension of sentence is the doubt which is the basis for the Division Bench for referring the following question to this Full Bench to answer:

"Whether the period spent on parole by a convict shall be counted as sentence period or not ?"

3. The respondent in W.A.(MD).No.206 of 2010 is a life convict undergoing sentence in the Central Prison, Palayamkottai. According to him, he had spent around 480 days on parole. But the appellants he