39 of Machhi Singh (supra) have not been answered in the particular case. No evidence as to the uncommon nature of the offence or the improbability of reformation or rehabilitation of the appellant has been adduced. Bachan Singh (supra) unambiguously sets out that death penalty shall be awarded only in the rarest of rare cases where life imprisonment shall be wholly inadequate or futile owing to the nature of the crime and the circumstances relating to the criminal. Whether the person is capable of reformation and rehabilitation should also be taken into consideration while imposing death penalty. As laid down in Shankar Kisanrao Khade (supra), whether the person would be a threat to society or whether not granting death penalty would send a wrong message to society are additional factors to be looked at. No such analysis was undertaken by the High Court. The High Court has also failed to look at the aggravating and mitigating circumstances regarding the criminal as warranted by Bachan Singh (supra). The fact that the appellant had no previous criminal record apart from the acquittal in the Section 376, IPC, which was a false implication and the alleged motive did not weigh with the High Court as an important mitigating circumstance with respect to the criminal. 14. In the past four decades or so, this Court has been consistently echoing its concern on the constitutional ethos on value and dignity 15