have to apply, while awarding death sentence are “crime
test”, “criminal test” and the “R-R test” and not the
“balancing test”. To award death sentence, the “crime test”
has to be fully satisfied, that is, 100% and “criminal test”
0%, that is, no mitigating circumstance favouring the
accused. If there is any circumstance favouring the accused,
like lack of intention to commit the crime, possibility of
reformation, young age of the accused, not a menace to the
society, no previous track record, etc. the “criminal test”
may favour the accused to avoid the capital punishment.
Even if both the tests are satisfied, that is, the aggravating
circumstances to the fullest extent and no mitigating
circumstances favouring the accused, still we have to apply
finally the rarest of the rare case test (R-R test). R-R test
depends upon the perception of the society that is “societycentric” and not “Judge-centric”, that is, whether the society
will approve the awarding of death sentence to certain types
of crimes or not. While applying that test, the court has to
look into variety of factors like society's abhorrence, extreme
indignation and antipathy to certain types of crimes like
sexual assault and murder of intellectually challenged minor
girls, suffering from physical disability, old and infirm women
with those disabilities, etc. Examples are only illustrative and
not exhaustive. The courts award death sentence since
situation demands so, due to constitutional compulsion,
reflected by the will of the people and not the will of the
Judges.”
(Emphasis supplied)
13.
In our opinion, the High Court has erroneously confirmed death
penalty without correctly applying the law laid down in Bachan
Singh (supra), Machhi Singh (supra), Santosh Bariyar (supra)
and Shankar Kisanrao Khade (supra). The decision to impose the
highest punishment of death sentence in this case does not fulfil the
test of “rarest of rare case where the alternative option is
unquestionably foreclosed”. The questions laid down in paragraph
14
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents