remission

Remission cuts the term a convict must serve, for example from ten years to seven, while the sentence remains one of imprisonment and the conviction stands. It differs from commutation (changing one kind of punishment into a lighter kind) and pardon (wiping out the punishment altogether). Statutory remission is given by the appropriate government under s.473 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (old s.432 CrPC), and prisons grant earned remission under the prison rules.

Under s.475 BNSS (old s.433A CrPC), a person sentenced to life imprisonment for an offence also punishable with death cannot be released before fourteen years of actual imprisonment. The constitutional power under Articles 72 and 161 is separate and not limited by these provisions. In V. Sriharan the Supreme Court held that constitutional courts may impose a fixed term beyond fourteen years, or life without remission, in place of death.

Example

Because the life convict had served only eleven years, the State could not grant him remission in view of s.475 BNSS.

In Indian law

• Sections 473 and 475, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (old ss.432 and 433A CrPC)
• Articles 72 and 161, Constitution of India
• Union of India v. V. Sriharan, 2015 INSC 886

See also

commutation · pardon · pardoning power · parole

Read more in the study notes

• Execution, suspension, remission and commutation of sentences; mercy petitions (Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita)
• Control over banking companies: management, accounts, lending, reconstruction and winding up (Banking Law)
• Punishments under the BNS, including community service (Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita)
• The President of India (Constitutional Law II)
• Discharge by agreement and by operation of law (Contract I)
• Globalisation, emerging trends in India's foreign trade and the EXIM policy (Economic Development in India)