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The Union Cabinet today gave its ex-post facto approval to the Agreement signed between India and Great Britain and Northern Ireland on the transfer of sentenced persons. The Agreement was signed on February 18, 2005 by Mr. Jack Straw, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of U.K. and the Union Home Minister. The salient features of the Agreement are as follows:
A request for transfer may be made by the convicted prisoner or a person entitled to act on his behalf in view of his age or physical or mental condition.
The request for transfer will have to be agreed upon by the Transferring State and the Receiving State.
The transfer will be effected if the judgement awarding the sentences is final in India, i.e., no appeal or revision against the judgement is pending in any Court.
The transfer will be made if the convicted prisoner is a citizen of the Receiving State notwithstanding that he may also be a citizen of any other foreign State.
The law of the Receiving State shall govern the enforcement of the sentence. However, the Receiving State shall be bound by the legal nature and duration of the sentence as determined by the Transferring State.
The enforcement of sentence in the Receiving State, to the extent that it has been enforced in the Transferring State, shall have the effect of discharging the sentence.
The Transferring State alone shall be competent to decide any application for review of the judgement. Either State may grant pardon, amnesty or commutation in accordance with its Constitution or other laws.
The convict shall not be transferred if:
a) The Transferring State is of the opinion that it would be prejudicial to the sovereignty, security or any other interest of the Transferring State;
b) There is any other case pending in the Transferring State against the convicted prisoner;
c) He is convicted of an offence under military law not being an offence under the ordinary criminal law of the Transferring State; and
d) Death penalty has been awarded to the convicted prisoner in the Transferring State.
RK/DS/LV
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