mitigating circumstances existing in his favour as per the reports which we
have discussed above. The medical reports of the appellant would disclose
that he has speech issues, and he has undergone an angioplasty in 2014, apart
from suffering other serious ailments, as already noted herein above. The
conduct report from the prison would disclose that the behaviour of the
appellant in the jail is satisfactory with everyone for the past six years.
Considering these factors, we are of the considered view that even though
the crime committed by the appellant is unquestionably grave and
unpardonable, it is not appropriate to affirm the death sentence that was
awarded to him. The doctrine of “rarest of rare” requires that death sentence
should not be imposed only by taking into consideration the grave nature of
crime but only if there is no possibility of reformation by a criminal. Being
conscious of the fact that sentence of life imprisonment is subject to
remission, which would not be appropriate in view of the gruesome crime
committed by the appellant, the course of middle path requires to be adopted
in the instant case. In that view of the matter, we find that the death penalty
needs to be converted to a fixed sentence during which period the appellant
would not be entitled to apply for remission.
33.
The appeal is therefore, partly allowed. The order of conviction as
recorded by the Trial Court and confirmed by the High Court of Judicature
at Bombay vide order dated 06/08/2019 in Confirmation Case No.3/2017 is
22
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