New Delhi: The Supreme Court Thursday orally remarked that due to its forgiving nature in commutation of death sentences, the country is witnessing an increase in crime and this has to “come to an end somewhere”.
A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Sheel Nagu was hearing a plea seeking premature release of a life convict whose death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Justice Datta orally remarked that earlier murder convictions were based on the ‘rarest of rare’ doctrine but times have changed.
“It is because of our forgiving nature, that India is facing these problems,” he said. Justice Datta recalled that the SC commuted the death sentence in a case where a man raped and murdered his elder daughter. “The father goes to jail on life imprisonment on the basis of the mother’s testimony.
After some years, he comes out on parole and murders the mother. On the younger daughter’s testimony, he is given a death sentence. And then the sentence is commuted to life sentence by the SC. That is why we say, our forgiving nature has to come to an end somewhere,” he said.
