Delhi lieutenant-governor Anil Baijal has approved the premature release of Jessica Lal murder case convict Manu Sharma, who is serving a life sentence, according to an official order.

The Delhi Sentence Review Board (SRB) which comes under the Delhi government had recommended Sharma's premature release last month.

The sources said the recommendation was made at a meeting of the SRB chaired by Delhi home minister Satyendar Jain on May 11.

Sharma, son of former Union minister Venod Sharma, was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by the Delhi High Court in December 2006 for killing Jessica Lal in 1999.

A trial court had acquitted him, but the high court reversed the order and the Supreme Court later upheld his life sentence in April 2010.

Lal was shot dead by Sharma after she had refused to serve him liquor at the Tamarind Court restaurant owned by socialite Bina Ramani at Qutub Colonnade in south Delhi's Mehrauli area on the night of April 30, 1999.