<p>Dwelling on the question whether a murder convict is to be awarded life or death sentence, the Supreme Court has laid down several landmark judgments.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Most important among them is Bachan Singh case (1980). The apex court held that the capital punishment is to be awarded in rarest of the rare case.<br /><br />The court said the normal rule is that the offence of murder shall be punished with life imprisonment. The court may depart from that rule and impose the death sentence for special reasons.<br /><br />Dealing with appeals against the award of death penalty to two men, the apex court, in its latest ruling last month, asked for a fresh look at the principle of aggravating and mitigating circumstances as the former relate to the crime while the later concern the criminal.<br /><br />“We have, unfortunately, not taken the sentencing process as seriously as it should be, with the result that in capital offences, it has become judge-centric sentencing rather than principled sentencing,” a bench of Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Madan B Lokur said.<br /><br />Commutation sought<br /><br />In July this year, 14 retired Supreme Court and High Courts judges wrote to President Pranab Mukherjee seeking commutation of death sentence of 13 persons awarded over seven cases saying that these judgments were rendered per incuriam (in ignorance) and <br />against the binding dictum of rarest of the rare case.<br /><br />The cases they cited showed that the verdicts by judges did have the possibility of going wrong.<br /><br /></p>.<h2><a href="../content/295710/voices-rise-against-death-row.html">Voices rise against death row</a><br /><br /><a href="../content/295709/brings-basal-instincts-society.html">Brings out basal instincts of a society</a><br /><br /><a href="../content/295707/norways-mass-killer-maximum-sentence.html">Norway’s mass killer and the maximum sentence</a><br /></h2>
<p>Dwelling on the question whether a murder convict is to be awarded life or death sentence, the Supreme Court has laid down several landmark judgments.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Most important among them is Bachan Singh case (1980). The apex court held that the capital punishment is to be awarded in rarest of the rare case.<br /><br />The court said the normal rule is that the offence of murder shall be punished with life imprisonment. The court may depart from that rule and impose the death sentence for special reasons.<br /><br />Dealing with appeals against the award of death penalty to two men, the apex court, in its latest ruling last month, asked for a fresh look at the principle of aggravating and mitigating circumstances as the former relate to the crime while the later concern the criminal.<br /><br />“We have, unfortunately, not taken the sentencing process as seriously as it should be, with the result that in capital offences, it has become judge-centric sentencing rather than principled sentencing,” a bench of Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Madan B Lokur said.<br /><br />Commutation sought<br /><br />In July this year, 14 retired Supreme Court and High Courts judges wrote to President Pranab Mukherjee seeking commutation of death sentence of 13 persons awarded over seven cases saying that these judgments were rendered per incuriam (in ignorance) and <br />against the binding dictum of rarest of the rare case.<br /><br />The cases they cited showed that the verdicts by judges did have the possibility of going wrong.<br /><br /></p>.<h2><a href="../content/295710/voices-rise-against-death-row.html">Voices rise against death row</a><br /><br /><a href="../content/295709/brings-basal-instincts-society.html">Brings out basal instincts of a society</a><br /><br /><a href="../content/295707/norways-mass-killer-maximum-sentence.html">Norway’s mass killer and the maximum sentence</a><br /></h2>
