Supreme Court on Death Sentence in Murder Cases

This Digest of all rulings of the Supreme Court on Death Sentence from 1950 till the present has been arranged in terms of the well established doctrine of aggravating and mitigating circumstances relevant to award of the death sentence. The most striking feature that emerges from a study of this mini-encyclopedia on the death penalty is that there is not a single situation wherein it can be said in advance as to whether death sentence will be imposed/confirmed or not. Every case that awards or confirms death sentence has an opposite ruling in almost identical circumstances which commutes death sentence to life imprisonment.The great saviour in this unhappy and inhumane state of the law is the truly landmark and pragmatic, even humane judgment of the Supreme Court by a Bench of three Judges in Swamy Shraddananda (2) v State of Karnataka. The entire text of this judgment has been reproduced from SCC while retaining the SCC pagination and paragraphing for easy citability in court. It is felt that this judgment stands out in the pragmatism and delicate balancing of competing considerations on the death sentence. It lays down the practical via media of the court prescribing a definite term of imprisonment, commensurate to the nature of the murder committed. The Supreme Court in a number of its very recent judgments has started following Swamy Shraddananda (2), since it provides a solution which so satisfies the conscience.