India, Aug. 13 -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed all states to ascertain if any convict was languishing in prisons beyond the fixed term of sentence as it underlined that such prisoners would be entitled to release without seeking any further order for remission.

The order came in a petition filed by Sukhdev Yadav, a convict in the 2002 Nitish Katara murder case, whose life term was converted to a fixed term sentence of 20 years, without any remission, by the top court in October 2016. After the sentence period ended on March 9, Yadav's application for remission was rejected by the Delhi government. He then approached the apex court, which first granted furlough on June 26 and ordered his release on July 29.

In a detailed judgmen...