NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Thursday orally remarked that its “forgiving nature” in commuting death sentences was contributing to an increase in crime, saying that there had to be a point where such leniency must “come to an end somewhere”.A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Sheel Nagu made the observations while hearing a plea seeking the premature release of a life convict whose death sentence had earlier been commuted to life imprisonment in a murder case.Justice Datta said that while murder convictions were earlier dealt with under the “rarest of rare” doctrine, “times have changed”. He questioned repeated instances of commuting death sentences and said the court had to draw a line.“It is because of our forgiving nature, that India is facing these problems. Forgive, forgive, forgive, you have to draw a line somewhere,” Justice Datta said, according to PTI.The judge then referred to a case in which the Supreme Court had commuted the death sentence of a man who had raped and murdered his elder daughter. Justice Datta said the man was sentenced to life imprisonment based on the testimony of the mother.
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After spending years in prison, the man was released on parole and allegedly murdered the mother in front of his younger daughter, Justice Datta said. The younger daughter’s testimony subsequently led to the man being sentenced to death.Justice Datta noted that the Supreme Court later commuted that death sentence to life imprisonment on the ground that the man had not murdered the younger daughter.“That is why we say, our forgiving nature has to come to an end somewhere,” he said, as reported by Bar and Bench.
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