Judgment

Mr. Gurvinder Singh Gill, J.

The petitioner Ranjit Singh, life convict, has approached this Court seeking issuance of direction/mandamus for releasing him prematurely on the basis of policy dated 8.7.1991 (Annexure P-12) of Government of Punjab, upon completion of 10 years of actual sentence and 14 years of total sentence.

2. The undisputed facts are that the petitioner stands convicted for having committed offences under Section 364 IPC and 302 IPC in a case arising out of FIR No. 47 dated 19.3.1997 under Sections 364 , 302 read with Section 34 IPC, lodged at Police Station Kotwali, District Sangrur. He alongwith co-accused Bahadur Singh was sentenced vide judgment dated 7.1.2002 passed by learned Sessions Judge, Sangrur (Annexure P-1) as under :-

3. There was no specific order as regards concurrent running of sentences in respect of both the offences.

4. The petitioner challanged his conviction by way of filing an appeal in this Court i.e. Criminal Appeal No.94-DB of 2002 but the same was dismissed by the Division Bench of this Court vide judgment dated 13.8.2010 (Annexure P-2) wherein the conviction as well as sentence was upheld. The judgment of this Court i.e. judgment dated 13.8.2010 (Annexure P-2) was challenged in the Supreme Court but was upheld vide judgment dated 25.2.2015 (Annexure P-3).

5. The petitioner had earlier filed a Civil Writ Petition in this Court i.e. CWP No. 7277 of 2018 seeking his pre-mature release inter-alia on the ground that sentences in respect of both the offences were to run concurrently in view of law laid down in Muthuramalingam vs. State represented by Inspector of Police, 2016 (3) RCR (Criminal) 827 and that as such, he had already completed undergone sentence. However, the petition was dismissed by this Court vide judgment date 3.12.2018 (Annexure P-4).

6. It is the case of the petitioner that the petitioner issued a notice dated 17.1.2019 (Annexure P-5), to respondents no. 2 and 3, wherein while drawing the attention of the jail authorities to various provisions of Punjab Jail Manual, a claim was made that he was entitled to the benefit of setting- off the under-trial period separately in respect of both the offences i.e. offences under Sections 364 and 302 IPC, but the said relief was not extended. Vide letter dated 7.3.2019 (Annexure P-6), in response to an application submitted by the petitioner under RTI, he was informed that the sentence of 7 years in respect of offence under Section 364 IPC had expired on 6.3.2003 and that the life sentence had commenced w.e.f. 6.3.2003 onwards and that the under-trial period w.e.f. 31.3.1997 to 6.1.2002 had been taken into consideration and had been set off as against the sentence of 7 years imposed for offence under Section 364 IPC and not towards the life sentence. It is further the case of the petitioner that the jail authorities vide their letter dated 13.3.2019 (Annexure P-7) sent a reply to the notice (Annexure P-5) wherein he was informed that the under-trial period had been set off against the sentence imposed for offence under Section 364 IPC only.

7. As per the petitioner, he has undergone the following sentence, as has been described in para 12 of the petition :-