Sentence/Sentencing - Remission of sentence - State classifying category of life convicts for pre-mature release by executive instruction - Life convicts, convicted prior to the date of instruction, challenging the classification - High Court holding the classification as unconstitutional - On appeal, held: No convict has fundamental right of remission - Valid classification by general instruction is permissible - However, the classification will have prospective operation and would not apply to the convicts in question - The instructions being advisory in nature, would not have force of a statute - Code of Criminal Procedure; 1973 - s. 433A - Punjab Prison Rules - Rules 2, 20 and 21 - Constitution of India, 1950 - Articles 14, 20 and 21.

The State of Haryana by an executive order, in the year 2002 laid down criteria for pre-mature release of life convicts. The same was challenged in Writ Petition by the respondents, who were convicts sentenced to life imprisonment in 1988. They, at the time of their conviction, were covered by instructions issued by the State of Haryana in the year 1984 amending Punjab Prison Rules. High Court allowed the Writ Petition declaring the criteria laid down to be unconstitutional on the premise that no discrimination could be made inter-se amongst the life convicts and thus the purported classification was arbitrary and discriminatory. Hence the present appeals.