criminal. There is no such evidence on material or on record. 31. The socio-economic condition of the appellant was a significant factor that ought to have been taken into consideration by the Trial Court as well the High Court while considering the punishment to be given to the appellant. While the socio-economic condition of a convict is not a factor for disproving his guilt, it is a factor that must be taken into consideration for the purposes of awarding an appropriate sentence to a convict. 32. We do not think it necessary to consider on the facts of this case, the period of incarceration of the appellant as a factor for deciding whether or not he should be awarded the death sentence. This is a factor that ought to have been placed before the Trial Judge and while we could certainly take this into consideration, we hesitate to do so in view of some uncertainty in this regard. In Ramesh v. State of Rajasthan13 an opinion was expressed in paragraph 76 of the Report that since the appellant therein had been languishing on death row for more than six years that would be a mitigating circumstance in his favour. There are a number of cases where convicts have been on death row for more than six years and if a standard period was to be adopted, perhaps each and every person on death row might have to be given the benefit of commutation of death sentence to one of life imprisonment. The long delays in courts must, of course, be taken into 13 (2011) 3 SCC 685 R.P. (Crl.) No.245 of 2010 in Crl. Appeal No. 811 of 2009 Page 18 of 19