accused can be reformed and rehabilitated can be one such illustration. In this context, Guideline 4 in the list of mitigating circumstances as borne out by Bachan Singh is relevant. The Court held: (SCC p. 750, para 206) “206. (4) The probability that the accused can be reformed and rehabilitated. The State shall by evidence prove that the accused does not satisfy Conditions ( 3) and (4) above.” In fine, Bachan Singh mandated identification of aggravating and mitigating circumstance relating to crime and the convict to be collected in the sentencing hearing. 58. The rarest of rare dictum breathes life in “special reasons” under Section 354(3). In this context, Bachan Singh laid down a fundamental threshold in the following terms: (SCC p. 751, para 209) “209. … A real and abiding concern for the dignity of human life postulates resistance to taking a life through law's instrumentality. That ought not to be done save in the rarest of rare cases when the alternative option is unquestionably foreclosed.” (emphasis supplied) An analytical reading of this formulation would reveal it to be an authoritative negative precept. The “rarest of rare cases” is an exceptionally narrow opening provided in the domain of this negative precept. This opening is also qualified by another condition in the form of “when the alternative option is unquestionably foreclosed”. 59. Thus, in essence, the rarest of rare dictum imposes a wide-ranging embargo on award of death punishment, which can only be revoked if the facts of the case successfully satisfy double qualification enumerated below: 1. that the case belongs to the rarest of rare category, 2. and the alternative option of life 12