SUPREME COURT IS APPALED BY “LYNCHING LIKE” DEATH PENALTY: 

 

TOI on 12 Dec 2012 reported that the Supreme Court is deeply distressed and displeased while censuring a Tamil Nadu trial court for awarding death penalty to a person accused in a dacoity-cum-murder case as a deterrent to eliminate crime from society. SC is of the opinion that; 

A). Trial court’s judgment is Lynching-like, meaning killing some one for an alleged offence with out legal trial especially by hanging. Does it mean that the trial by the lower Court was illegal or the sentence beyond the ambit of law? NO.

B). Trial Court has imported American or Arabian criminal jurisprudence to support and justify their judgment. Does our law not permit the sentence given by the trial court? Has the court gone beyond the limits of our established laws? NO.

C). Trial Court has imposed death sentence under section 396 of IPC to create fear among criminals who commit such crimes. SC is of the opinion that according to Indian jurisprudence life sentence was the norm and death sentence an exception. If it is allowed by law, let it be an exception then?  

The judgment is given by the trial court in accordance with the laws of the land. That may seem harsh to the SC. After all it is a matter of opinion? Who knows if the same trial court judge was sitting in SC and had given the same judgment, it would have been lauded as a land mark judgment? 

We should not forget that the criminal laws governing us were framed hundreds of years back by British in a very different environment than what is prevailing now. Heinous crimes like rape that too of innocent girls of below ten years and murders at the present rate were not heard those days. Now in NCR alone there are on average ten reported rapes and murders every day and robberies and dacoities are normal affair. High and low level corruption is rampant. Criminals roam around freely on bail even if they are caught. They loot, kill and rape at will. They have no fear of law.  

FEAR IS TO BE CREATED IN THE MIND OF THE CRIMINALS. IN THE PRESENT SENARIO DEATH SENTENCE SHOULD BE GIVEN AS A RULE AND NOT AS AN EXCEPTION. SHALL WE DO SOME THING TO SAVE OURSELVES OR ONLY PRAY GOD?

Wing Commander Vishnu Singh (Veteran)