98 Bachan Singh v. State of Punjab81. Counsels relied on numerous judgments relating to the importance of considering mitigating circumstances, the state’s role in demonstrating the accused is beyond reformation, mitigating circumstances such as age and socio-economic background, pre-sentence hearing – its scope and the court’s obligation, etc. 183. Capital punishment is prescribed in numerous IPC offences, including murder, kidnapping for ransom, rape and injury causing death or leaving a woman in a vegetative state, rape or gang rape of a child below 12 years old, dacoity with murder, among other offences. In Bachan Singh v. State of Punjab82 (hereafter, ‘Bachan Singh’), this court had upheld the imposition of death penalty as an alternate punishment under Section 302 IPC on the strength of the 35th Report of the Law Commission of India (1967), the judgment in Jagmohan Singh v. State of Uttar Pradesh83 (which had also noted that the 35th Report advocated for retention) and in several subsequent cases decided by this court, in which the death penalty was recognised to be a deterrent. It laid emphasis on the then recently added S. 253(2) and 354(3) CrPC which provide for bifurcated pre-sentence hearing and sentencing procedure on conviction of capital offences, to conclude that this form of punishment continued to have legislative backing and thereby, represented the will of the people. 184. It is undeniable that there have been shifts in how punishment in capital offences are dealt with. This is apparent when developments are looked at holistically, or at a macro level: the amendments to the CrPC by Parliament, the 35th and 262nd Law Commission Reports which stand over 30 years apart, and the precedents of this court, across the decades. Initially, the law imposed a requirement of written reasons for not imposing death penalty, which was removed in 1955. In 1973, through further amendment to the CrPC and insertion of Section 354(3) - life imprisonment became the norm and imposition 81 (1980) 2 SCC 684 82 (1980) 2 SCC 684 83 (1973) 1 SCC 20