New Delhi:
The Supreme Court today commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment of a man who was accused of raping his minor daughter and killing both his wife and the girl.
The court said it is not a rarest of rare case warranting death penalty but said the accused will have to be in jail till the end of his life.
This judgement comes after the JS Verma committee report recommended that rape and murder accused would have to spend their entire life in jail.
Mohinder Singh raped his 12-year-old minor daughter in 1999. He was awarded 12-year jail term by lower court in Punjab and confirmed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
In January 2005, Mohinder came out on parole and killed his wife who was a witness to the rape, and the daughter he had raped.
The trial court then awarded the death sentence to Mohinder which was later confirmed by the High Court.
Mohinder then filed an appeal in the Supreme Court.
Justice P Sathasivam in his judgement today said, "We find it difficult to hold that the appellant is such a dangerous person that sparing his life will endanger the community. We are also not satisfied that the circumstances of the crime are such that there is no other alternative but to impose death sentence even after according maximum weightage to the mitigating circumstances in favour of the accused. In our considered view, this case is the one in which humanist approach must be taken in the matter of awarding punishment."
Holding that it is not a rarest of rare case, the court also said, "It is well settled law that awarding of life sentence is a rule, and death is an exception. In life sentence, there is a possibility of achieving deterrence, rehabilitation and retribution in different degrees...However, the principles laid down and reiterated in various decisions of this Court show that in a deliberately planned crime, executed meticulously in a diabolic manner, exhibiting inhuman conduct in a ghastly manner, touching the conscience of everyone and thereby disturbing the moral fiber of the society, would call for imposition of capital punishment in order to ensure that it acts as a deterrent. While we are convinced that the case of the prosecution based on the evidence presented confirms the commission of offence by the appellant, however, we are of the considered opinion that still the case does not fall within the four corners of the "rarest of rare" case."
Justice Ibrahim Kalifulla, other judge of the two-judge bench in separate judgment also held that this was not one of the rarest of rare cases warranting imposition of death sentence on Mohinder Singh.