Report No. 39
22. Orissa High Court's view.-
Dissenting from the view taken by the Kerala High Court, the Orissa High Court has held1 that "imprisonment for life" means under the Indian Penal Code "rigorous imprisonment for life". The main grounds on which this decision is based are-
(i) the proposition laid down by the Privy Council2 and reaffirmed by the Supreme Court3, that a person sentenced to transportation, could be treated as a person sentenced to rigorous imprisonment;
(ii) the discussion4 of the question in the Report of the Joint Committee which considered the Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Bill of 1954, particularly the observation that substitution of "imprisonment" for "transportation" should not change the nature of the punishment;
(iii) the use of the expression "rigorous imprisonment for life" in some judgment of the Supreme Court;
(iv) the non-applicability of section 60 to the sentence of imprisonment for life.
None of these grounds, however, appears to us to lead definitely to the conclusion that imprisonment for life must be rigorous.
1. Urlikia v. State, AIR 1964 Ori 149.
2. Kishori Lal v. Emperor, 72 Ind App 15: AIR 1945 PC 64.
3. G.V. Godse v. State, AIR 1961 SC 600.
4. See para. 15, supra.