After setting out the provisions the court observed thus: "Whatever justification there might have been for the contention that a person sentenced to transportation could not be legally made to undergo rigorous imprisonment in a jail in India except temporarily till he was so transported, subsequent to the said amendment there is non under that section, a person transported for life or any other term before the enactment of the said section would be treated as a person sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for life or for the said term." ' It may significantly be pointed out that Gopal Godse 's sentence of transportation for life had been passed on 10th February, 1949, i.e. prior to the coming into force of the Amending Act 26 of 1955 and the question had come up for consideration before this Court in January 1961 long after the Amending Act had come into force whereunder the sentence of imprisonment for life had been substituted for transportation, with the result that this Court had to and did rely on section 53A (2) for its conclusion.