D.S.Sinha, J. - (1.) LIST has been revised. No body is present on behalf of the petitioner to press this petition. Sri Arvind Kumar Tripathi, learned Addl. Government Advocate, who appears for the respondents, has been heard.
(2.) BY means of this writ petition, under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, Sri Ram Kripal Singh, the petitioner, beseeches this Court to issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of Habeas Carpus commanding the superintendent, Central Jail, Naini, Allahabad to produce him before this Court and direct him to set him at liberty forthwith. The petitioner is confined in Ceatral Jail, Naini, Allahabad. He is serving life sentence awarded to him, under section 302 IPC by Sessions Judge, Fatehpur on 25th September, 1972, in Sessions Trial No. 50/72, State v. Ram Kripal Singh and others, which was confirmed by this Court in appeal. It is not disputed that by now he has bean in incarceration for more than two decades. The petitioner contends that the sentence of imprisonment for life means imprisonment for a term and not for whole of life. According to him, the term of two decades, during which he remained interned, would satisfy the requirement of law with regard to the serving out the sentence of life imprisonment. He, therefore, asserts that his detention is illegal.
(3.) THE Court is afraid, the contention of the petitioner is wholly wonky. THE question as to what is the period of a sentence for life imprisonment is no longer res nova or res integra. More than three decades ago the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India answered, the question thus : A sentence of transporatation of life or imprisonment for life must prima facie be treated as transportation or imprisonment for the whole of the remaining period of the convicted person's natural life "(See G. V. Godse v. THE State of Maharashtra, AIR 1961 SC 600). Law laid down in the case of G. V. Godse was reiterated by the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India in its decision rendered in Maru Ram v. Union of India. (See AIR 1980 SC 2147). It was held that the nature of a life sentence was incarceration until death.;