IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA Criminal Writ No.1221 of 2011 Radhika Devi @ Radhaka Devi, W/o Surendra Mahto, resident of Village Jeevanpur, P.S. Harnaut, District Nalanda … … Petitioner Versus 1. The State Of Bihar 2. The Principal Secretary, Department of Home, Bihar, Patna 3. The Director General of Police, Bihar, Patna 4. The Inspector General, Prison, Bihar, Patna 5. The Assistant Inspector General, Prison, Bihar, Patna 6. The State Sentence Remission Board, Bihar, Patna through its Secretary 7. The Jail Superintendent, Shahid Jubba Sahani, Central Jail, Bhgalpur 8. The Jail Superintendent, Mandal Kara, Bihar Sharif, Nalanda … … Respondents ---------------------------------- 2. 20.12.2011 This writ petition has been filed by the wife of one Surendra Mahto of village Jeevanpur, P.S. Harnaut, District Nalanda. She seeks release of her husband from imprisonment on the ground that considering the law in regard to serving of sentence, he has served out his sentence. It is stated that in Sessions Trial No.065 of 1980, the 5th Additional Sessions Judge, Nalanda at Biharsharif had convicted and sentenced the said Surendra Singh alias Surendra Mahto and one Rajendra Singh by judgment and order dated 14.2.1997 to death. Upon an appeal being preferred in Cr. Appeal No. 97 of 1997, which was heard along with Death Reference No.1 of 1997, this Court converted the death sentence of the said Rajendra Singh and Surendra Mahto to life imprisonment by judgment and order dated 4.2.1998. It is further stated that wife of Rajendra Singh, namely, Kanti Devi had filed a writ 2 petition in this Court being Cr.W.J.C. No. 775 of 2011 against the recommendations of the State Sentence Remission Board, Bihar, Patna who by its decision dated 21.12.2010 had refused to release the said Rejendra Singh on the ground that he was sentenced to death but it was converted to life imprisonment which sentence was for killing the public servant. This Court in the writ petition aforesaid which was disposed of on 23.8.2011, held that reason given was untenable in law and remitted the matter to the State Sentence Remission Board, Bihar, Patna, for reconsideration. It is stated in paragraph 21 of this writ petition that upon remand by this Court, the said Rajendra Singh has been released, but, though the case of the petitioners’ husband is similarly situated, his case was neither reconsidered nor was her husband released. The case of petitioner’s husband was earlier considered along with the said Rajendra Singh and on the same very ground it was rejected. Prima facie, the issue now stands concluded by the judgment and order of this Court as per the case of Kanti Devi, wife of Rajendra sing being Cr.W.J.C. No.775 of 2011 disposed of on 23.8.2011. Having heard the parties, we direct that the State Sentence Remission board, Bihar, Patna would reconsider the matter of the petitioner and pass appropriate orders accordingly within one month of the production of a copy of this order before the Board on behalf of the petitioner. We 3 would like to observe that in view of the law as settled by this Court in the case aforesaid which has followed the decision of the Apex Court in that regard, the State Sentence Remission Board, Biahr, Patna, should reconsider the cases of all similarly situated persons on its own and take a decision afresh in the matter so that unnecessarily people are not detained beyond legitimate period and this Court is not burdened with such litigations. With the aforesaid observation and direction, the writ petition is disposed of. Kanth (Navaniti Prasad Singh , J.) ( Ashwani Kumar Singh, J.)