States must consider remission of eligible convicts even without their application: Supreme Court

States and Union Territories with a policy for the permanent remission of convicts must consider their early release even without a request from the prisoners or their family, the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday.

The bench of Justices AS Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan noted that if a remission policy is in place, governments cannot limit relief to only those who apply under the policy.

“Such conduct on the part of the states will be discriminatory and arbitrary and amount to a violation of Article 14 of the Constitution,” the bench said.