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Kiran vs. The State of Karnataka

Not available · 2025 INSC 1453Decided 18 Dec 2025
Not available
Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah · Justice K. Vinod Chandran

Background

A widow with five children was set on fire and died ten days later from her burns, after she refused the accused's (a relative by marriage) sexual advances. Several key witnesses, including the deceased's own father and daughter, turned hostile at trial. However, the prosecution relied on other eyewitnesses who placed the accused at the scene, and on the deceased's dying declarations recorded by a police officer and a magistrate. The trial court convicted the accused and imposed a sentence of life imprisonment "for the rest of natural life," also denying him the ordinary benefit of set-off for time already spent in custody under Section 428 CrPC. The accused appealed to the Supreme Court against the conviction and this unusually severe sentencing.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court examined the evidence, the corroborated eyewitness accounts and the two consistent dying declarations, and upheld the conviction under Section 302 IPC. However, on sentencing, the Court held that a Sessions Court (unlike the Supreme Court or High Courts) has no power to impose the special category of "life imprisonment without remission," a sentencing option available only to Constitutional Courts as laid down in Swamy Shraddananda and Union of India v. V. Sriharan. It also held the trial court could not deny the accused the statutory benefit of set-off under Section 428 CrPC for time already undergone in custody. The Court therefore modified the sentence to ordinary life imprisonment (subject to future remission per government policy) with set-off permitted, while confirming the conviction.

Lesson Learnt

Only Constitutional Courts (the Supreme Court and High Courts), not trial/Sessions Courts, can impose a life sentence that excludes the possibility of remission; and every convict is ordinarily entitled to have pre-conviction custody time set off against their sentence under Section 428 CrPC, a right a Sessions Court cannot take away.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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