JUDGMENT

KRISHNA IYER, J. (On behalf of himself and Chandrachud CJI. and Bhagwati J.) :- A procession of life convicts, well over two thousand strong, with more joining the march even as the arguments were on, has vicariously mobbed this court, through their learned counsel, carrying constitutional missiles in hand and demanding liberty beyond the bars. They challenge the vires of Section 433A of the Criminal Procedure Code (Procedure Code, for short) which compels caging of two classes of prisoners, at least for fourteen eternal internal years, regardless of the benign remissions and compassionate concessions sanctioned by prison law and human justice. Their despair is best expressed in the bitter lines of Oscar Wilde. The Ballad of Reading Gaol.

I know not whether Laws be right,

Or whether Laws be wrong,

All that we know who lie in gaol

Is that the wall is strong;

And that each day is like a year.

A year whose days are long.

(Emphasis added)

But broken hearts cannot break prison walls. Since prisons are built with stones of law, the key to liberation too is in laws custody. So, counsel have piled up long and learned arguments punctuated with evocative rhetoric. But judges themselves ar