During the hearing of the matter pertaining to the death reference of self-styled godman Swami Shraddhananda, the Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Karnataka government Counsel to suggest the legal principle of sentencing a person to a life term with the rider to keep him behind bars till his death.

During the arguments a three-judge bench of Justices B N Agrawal, G S Singhvi and Aftab Alam posed the question whether Shraddhananda, convicted for killing his wife Begum Shakereh Namazi in Bangalore 17 years back, should be sentenced to life imprisonment with the direction to to keep him in jail till he is alive.

The bench asked prosecution Advocate Sanjay Hegde to submit on Wednesday the question of law, whether the court could give such a ruling to imprison him till death.