Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Wednesday dismissed, as “premature, totally misconceived”, gangster Abu Salem‘s petition for release from jail on the grounds that with remission for good conduct, he completed his 25-year sentence in the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts case.Citing a 2022 Supreme Court order which stated Salem’s term would conclude on November 10, 2030, as he was extradited from Portugal to India and arrested on November 11, 2005, the HC observed that no remission rules apply to him.“Since the 25 years would be completed on November 10, 2030, the present application seeking to include the remission is clearly misconceived,” said a bench of Justices Ajay Gadkari and Kamal Khata in their judgment, adding that Salem’s “claim for reduction of the term based on the remission earned will have no application” neither under the Maharashtra Prisons (Remission System) Rules, 1962, nor under the Criminal Procedure Code.In February, the Supreme Court had refused to entertain Salem’s plea claiming that he was in “illegal custody” for over 10 months as he had already undergone the 25-year sentence awarded to him in the March 12, 1993, serial blasts case, and asked him to argue his case before the HC, where he sought early release.According to the extradition terms agreed upon by India and Portugal, Salem cannot be given the death penalty and his prison term cannot exceed 25 years.Salem’s senior counsel Rishi Malhotra, with advocate Farhana Shah, argued that remission rules would kick in and that would enable a reduction in his days in jail.But the state, through prosecutor MM Deshmukh; the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), through counsel Kuldeep Patil; and the Centre, through ASG Anil Singh, opposed Salem’s plea as lacking in merit. The HC too found no merit in Salem’s contention and said the SC never intended that earned remissions under prison rules would reduce the 25-year period. “To accept such a contention would defeat the very basis of the sentence structure arising from international obligations,” the HC judgment authored by Justice Khata said.The HC also observed that Salem’s plea arises from a life sentence given in 2017 by a special trial court established under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA), “duration of which was restricted to 25 years in view of sovereign assurances”,His 2005-17 pretrial detention is included in the 25 years. Salem “cannot claim an automatic reduction of the 25-year term by inclusion of earned remission. Earned remissions are under the prison rules and therefore, it has no application,” the bench stressed.The HC also said Salem “failed to demonstrate that his current detention is unauthorised or illegal” since the term as envisioned by the SC stands incomplete.The executive’s duty to pass formal remission orders only arises one month before the completion of the 25 years, the HC observed, adding any grant of remission lowering the term ought to be decided only in November 2030. “The apex court has categorically reserved the right to decide on any other reductions to itself,” the HC order said, while dismissing Salem’s plea.The bench also said Salem’s case of early release is “based on flawed aggregation of remissions”. “The remissions cannot be applied to reduce the fixed 25-year threshold applied as a result of the extradition treaty,” the HC held, adding that “the TADA court, in its order dated December 10, 2024, rightly observed that SC’s directions regarding the 25-year period are clear and that the petitioner remains a convict undergoing sentence for heinous crimes against the state.“
