India, April 17 -- The Delhi High Court on Thursday observed that the Sentence Review Board (SRB) appeared to have rejected the premature release of Santosh Kumar Singh, who is serving a life sentence for the rape and murder of law student Priyadarshini Mattoo, based on "public perception." The court assured that Singh would get an "objective treatment" regarding premature release.

A bench of Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani said that while the offence was undeniably heinous and the victim's family had suffered an irreparable loss, the SRB was just rejecting premature release petitions of convicts, including Singh, on account of the heinousness of the offence despite receiving recommendations on the contrary.

"SRB seems to be proceeding on...