'Have To Draw A Line': Top Court Judge Speaks Against Commuting Death Penalty

The Supreme Court on Thursday remarked that the country is witnessing an increase in crime because of the court's "forgiving nature" in commuting death sentences, and that this has to "come to an end somewhere".

"Forgive, forgive, forgive... you have to draw a line somewhere," Justice Dipankar Datta said. A bench of Justices Datta and Sheel Nagu was hearing a plea seeking premature release of a life convict in a murder case, whose death sentence had been commuted to life imprisonment.

Justice Datta said the "rarest of rare" doctrine was earlier applied in murder cases because such crimes were relatively rare at the time, but that times have changed.

To illustrate his point, Justice Datta recalled a case in which the Supreme Court commuted the death sentence of a man who had 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, the father comes out on parole and murders the mother in front of his younger daughter," he said. "On the younger daughter's testimony, he is given the death sentence. And then the death sentence is commuted to a life sentence by the Supreme Court on the ground that he did not murder the younger child. That is why we say, our forgiving nature has to come to an end somewhere," Justice Datta said.

He said the court also has to take into account the rising number of crimes in the country, indicating that a balance needs to be struck in cases where death sentences are commuted to life imprisonment.