In a shocking case, a man who had his life sentence reduced to seven years by the Madhya Pradesh High Court ended up spending over 11 years in jail. Neither he nor the jail authorities were informed about the High Court order.
A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and K V Viswanathan said that Sohan Singh spent 11 years and 7 months in jail, even though he was only supposed to serve seven years. Although he was granted bail at one point, the state did not release him after his sentence was over.
On Monday, the Supreme Court directed the state government to pay him Rs 25 lakh for the injustice and violation of his fundamental rights.
Case history
The man was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in a rape case in July 2005. He was later released on bail by the high court when he filed an appeal. However, in December 2013, his bail was cancelled, and he was sent back to jail.
His appeal against the life sentence was finally decided in October 2017, when the Madhya Pradesh High Court reduced it to seven years of rigorous imprisonment.
Mistake goes unnoticed for years
Even after his sentence was reduced, the man stayed in jail longer than the seven years. The error was discovered only on June 6, 2021, when advocate Mahfooz Nazki came across the 2017 high court order while reviewing files. He immediately sent a copy to the Sagar Jail superintendent, and the man was finally released.
State admits communication gap
The Supreme Court asked the state government to explain why the man stayed in jail beyond his sentence. The state admitted that a communication gap prevented the jail authorities from being informed about the high court order.
“We want to know how such a serious mistake happened and why the petitioner stayed in jail even after completing his seven-year sentence,” the bench asked.