Impact of prolonged incarceration on appellate sentence modification

The protracted duration of criminal proceedings spanning multiple decades places immense psychological and physical strains on litigants, influencing the final structuring of judicial sentences. When an accused person spends several years behind bars across different phases of trial, appeal, and Supreme Court review, that actual period of detention is factored into the final penalty. Prolonged periods of incarceration running into several years serve as a severe form of penal suffering, fulfilling a substantial portion of the retributive objective inherent in criminal law. Appellate forums take cognizance of this elapsed time when substituting convictions from murder to culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Serving significant prison time under the shadow of a serious criminal charge acts as a powerful deterrent and experiential punishment in itself. Requiring an aging offender to return to custody after nearly three decades since the initial incident fails to subserve any meaningful social or legal objective. Therefore, commuting a prison sentence to the exact period already undergone provides a just, pragmatic, and legally sound resolution to long-pending criminal appeals. This approach prevents the penal system from becoming unnecessarily oppressive while respecting the finality of judicial determinations. (Shrikrishna v. The State of Madhya Pradesh | 2026 INSC 45)