Counting days of imprisonment before and after judgment

Chowdhury Tanbir Ahamed Siddique : Arrest before judgment refers to a situation where a person is taken into the custody of the law before being convicted of a crime in a court of law so that he cannot flee or destroy evidence in fear of prosecution. Such arrests are usually made based on probable cause, where law enforcement officers have sufficient reason to believe that the person has committed a crime and there is sufficient evidence to support the law enforcement officer’s claims. However, in some cases, the person may be released on bail for different periods pending trial or before the verdict.

In case of bailable offenses, bail is granted based on legal rights and in case of non-bailable offenses, one can get bail based on age or female, or illness. Just as the grant of bail in bailable offenses is mandatory for the court, so the grant of bail in non-bailable offenses is discretionary for the court.

Now speaking, a case has been filed against a person for a particular crime. Now if an arrest warrant is issued against the said accused person, then the police will arrest him and produce him in court. In case of bailable offenses, the accused may take bail before arrest. And even after an arrest, if he applies for bail, then he gets bail. So maybe he’s not being imprisoned that way.

But, if the accused, even in a bailable offense, violates the conditions of bail, and fails to appear before the court, the bail may be canceled. And if the bail is canceled, in that case, it may be necessary to spend some time in prison before getting the bail. Again, in case of non-bailable offenses, if bail is not granted, the accused shall be imprisoned.

The question is if an accused person is imprisoned even before the judgment and is convicted even after the verdict, then he has to be imprisoned again, in that case, how will his imprisonment be calculated?

According to section 35A of the Code of Criminal Procedure, if an accused person during the trial, is in prison and the accused person or the accused is sentenced after the trial, then the number of days he spent in prison before being sentenced is days should be excluded.

For example, an accused has been in jail for about 6 months consecutively or intermittently without being granted bail during the trial. In this case, at the end of the trial, he was found guilty and sentenced to 3 years imprisonment. Now how long will he be imprisoned?- The answer is 2 years and 6 months.

I hope no one should have any problem understanding this simple calculation. But, the problem is if the amount of imprisonment that an accused person was serving during the trial is more than the sentence announced by the court at the end of the trial.

According to Section 35A (2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, if the accused person or the accused has served a longer term of imprisonment before being sentenced than the sentence to which he is sentenced at the end of the trial, then the accused person shall be released from imprisonment and if any of the charges against the accused along with the imprisonment If the fine remains, that fine will also be waived.

For example, an accused person has been in jail for about 2 years and 3 months consecutively or intermittently without being granted bail during the trial. In this case, at the end of the trial, he was found guilty and sentenced to 2 years imprisonment only. Now how long will he be imprisoned?- The answer is, the said accused person should be released from imprisonment and if there is any fine against the accused along with the imprisonment then that fine will also be waived.

However, the benefit of expungement from the original sentence on account of imprisonment by the convicted person shall not apply to the death penalty. Why not, it is very natural. In the case of various terms of imprisonment, even if the accused is released from prison at one point or another, there is no chance of release for the accused who has been sentenced to death. Therefore, as per Section 35A (1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, Section 35A shall not apply to the death penalty. However, Section 35A shall apply in case of life imprisonment.

In the case of Ataur Mridha alias Ataur v. State, as per the decision of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, an accused sentenced to life imprisonment will get the benefit of Section 35A. According to the decision of the Appellate Division in the said case, the benefit of Section 35A of the Code of Criminal Procedure does not apply only to offenses punishable by death.

Imprisonment for life, for section 35A of the Code of Criminal Procedure, shall be deemed to be 30 years of rigorous imprisonment and the period of imprisonment already served by the accused at the time of trial shall be deducted from the imprisonment for life.

For example, an accused person has been in jail for about 5 years and 6 months consecutively or intermittently without being granted bail during the trial. As a result, the trial concluded that he was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. Now how long will he be imprisoned?- The answer is, the said accused person will have to be imprisoned for another 24 years and 6 months. Because life imprisonment means 30 years of imprisonment in this case.

That’s all about the process of counting days of imprisonment before and after judgment. But alas! if an innocent or innocent person is imprisoned under the grip of a false or harassing case, but is proven innocent at the end of the trial, there is still no compensation for that innocent accused (actually victim). Hello lawmakers, attention, please.

 Author: Chowdhury Tanbir Ahamed Siddique; The author completed LLB, and LLM from Northern University Bangladesh and is now a full-time writer for various newspapers.