Section 433-A, Cr.P.C., bars premature release for offenses punishable with death or where a death sentence has been commuted to life imprisonment, even if the prisoner has served more than 10 years.

1. The petitioner who claims to be less than 17 years of age on the date of crime on being sentenced to life imprisonment under S. 302, I.P.C. on Mar. 12, 1980, prays that since he has undergone more ten years imprisonment (actual plus remissions), the State authorities be directed to consider his case for premature release. This claim is made in the light of para. 516-B of the Punjab Jail Manual the relevant part of which reads as under :-

"(b) The case of a female prisoner and of a male prisoner under 20 years of age at the time of commission of offence who is undergoing :-

(i) Imprisonment/s for life.

(iv) A single sentence of more than 20 years shall be submitted through the Inspector General of Prisons, Punjab, for the orders of the State Government when the prisoner has undergone a period of detention in jail amounting together with remission earned to 10 years."

Stand further is that the restriction imposed on the powers of the State Government qua remission and commutation of sentences in such cases vide S. 433-A as introduced by the Criminal Amendment Act, 1978, with effect from Dec. 18, 1978, does not affect power of the State Government to order premature release or at least the consideration for such a release under S. 433 (b) of the Cr.P.C. In other words, the submission is that the power of the State Government to commute a sentence of life under S. 433, Cr.P.C, is not affected by S. 433-A in any manner. The stand of the respondents while conceding that up to April 20,1987 the petitioner had undergone actual imprisonment of 6 years 7 months and 20 days and had also earned remission for 5 years 5 months and 2 days in accordance with the critieria laid down in the above noted manual for remission of sentences is that the provisions of the manual which are no more than Government instructions are of no avail to the convicts in the face of S.433-A, Cr.P.C, as the bar created by this section that a person who has been sentenced to imprisonment for life for an offence for which death is one of the punishments provided by law cannot be released from prison unless he has served at least 14 years of imprisonment, is absolute. Having given my thoughtful consideration to the entire matter I find that the petitioner has no case.

2. The submission of Mr. B.S. Malik, learned counsel for the petitioner, as has been noticed above, appears to be the result of some confusion as the learned consel equates remission with commutation of sentences. He while conceding that S. 433-A is a complete bar to the remission of sentences as envisaged by S. 432, Cr.P.C, contends that this bar is not applicable to the power of the State Government to direct a premature release of the convict as envisaged by Cl. (b) of S. 433, Cr.P.C. As pointed out earlier, this submission is founded on the belief that remission of a sentence is the same thing as commutation of a sentence. This, however, on the face of it, is totally fallacious. The ordinary dictionary meaning of remission is to remit, relinquishment of a claim, pardon, forgiveness. On the other hand, to commute means to exchange or to exchange for a punishment less severe. This was the precise meaning attributed to these two words by the Law Commission in its 41st report while it was considering the revision of Ss. 401 and 402 of the earlier Cr.P.C. This is what the Commission observed in its report :-

" Remission originally meant a pardon under the great seal and release, but laterly it came to mean the same as a reduction of the quantum of the punishment, e.g. amount of the fine imposed or term of imprisonment awarded (without changing its character). Commutation means the alteration of a sentence of one kind into a sentence of a less severe kind as indicated in S. 402 of the Code."

It is thus patent that power of the State Government to grant remission or direct commutation of sentences in such cases is, not the same. Under S. 433, Cr.P.C, the appropriate Government can only commute a