Remission from president sanjay dutt's only option

NEW DELHI: Sanjay Dutt, riding high on his Munnabhai-series driven popularity, has a veryslim chance of getting his sentence reduced by filing a petition in the Supreme Court seeking review of its Thursday judgment awarding him five-year sentence instead of six years imposed by the trial court.

That is because review petitions are always placed before the same bench which had pronounced the verdict. Given the detailed analysis of the evidence carried out by the bench of Justices P Sathasivam and BS Chauhan, lawyers close to Dutt ruled out the possibility of his moving a review plea.

However, given his string of charitable work, clean track record, his recent marriage and the goodwill of the public and politicians towards the Dutt family, sources said the actor could move either the President or the Maharashtra governor to seek remission of sentence.

Though Dutt may have to be in jail before the plea for remission of sentence is filed before the constitutional authority, if accepted, it would save the actor from undergoing the three-and-a-half sentence.

Under Article 72 of the Constitution, the President has the "power to grant pardon, reprieves, respites or remissions of punishment or to suspend, remit or commute the sentence of any person convicted of any offence". Governors have been conferred with similar powers under Article 161 of the Constitution.