At the outset of the judgment it is stated that the precise issue before it was "the canalisation of the sentencing discretion in a competing situation. .Therefore this jurisprudential exploration, within the framework of section 302 I.P.C., has become necessitous, both because the awesome 'either/or ' of the Section spells out no specific indicators and law in this fatal area cannot afford to be conjectural". "The flame of life cannot flicker uncertain; and so section 302 I.P.C. must be invested with pragmatic concreteness that inhibits ad hominem responses of individual judges and is in penal conformance with constitutional norms and world conscience." "Within the dichotomous frame work of section 302 I.P.C., upheld in Jagmohan Singh, we have to evolve working rules of punishment bearing the markings of enlightened flexibility and societal sensibility.". . "Therefore, it is no heresay to imbibe and inject the social philosophy of the Constitution into the Penal Code to resolve the tension between the Past and the Present.". . "That is the essay we undertake here".