Case: Bishnu Prasad Sinha  Vs. State Of Assam

was observed as under: "Therefore, undue sympathy to impose inadequate sentence would do more harm to the justice system to undermine the public confidence in the efficacy of law and society could not long endure under such serious threats. It is, therefore, the duty of every court to award proper sentence having regard to the nature of the offence and the manner in which it was executed or committed etc. This position was illuminatingly stated by this Court in Sevaka Perumal v. State of Tamil Naidu (1991 3 SCC 471." 60. In Sahdeo & Ors. vs. State of U.P. [(2004) 10 SCC 682] , this Court opined : "As regards the sentence of death imposed on five accused persons by the sessions court, which was confirmed by the appellate court, the counsel for the appellants, Shri Sushil Kumar submitted that in the absence of clear and convincing evidence regarding the complicity of the accused, these appellants could not be visited with the death penalty, while the counsel for the State submitted that this is a ghastly incident in which eight persons were done to death and the death penalty alone is the most appropriate punishment to be imposed. Though it is proved that there was an unlawful assembly and the common object of that unlawful assembly was to kill the deceased persons, there is another aspect of the matter inasmuch as there is no clear evidence by the use of whose fire-arm all the six deceased persons died as a result of firing in the bus. It is also pertinent to note that the investigating agency failed to produce clear and distinct evidence to prove the actual overt acts of each of the accused. The failure to examine the driver and conductor of the bus, the failure to seize the bus and the absence of a proper mahzar, are all lapses on the part of investigating agency. Moreover, the doctor who gave evidence before the court was not properly cross-examined regarding the nature of the injuries. Some more details could have been collected as to how the incident might have happened inside the bus. These facts are pointed out to show that the firing may have been caused by the assailants even while they were still standing on the footboard of the bus and some of the appellants may not, in fact, have had an occasion to use the fire-arm, though they fully shared the common object of the unlawful assembly. Imposition of the death penalty on each of the five appellants may not be justified under such circumstances. We take this view in view of the peculiar circumstances of the case and it should not be understood to mean that the accused persons are not to be convicted under Section 302 read with Section 149 and the death penalty cannot be imposed in the absence of various overt acts by individual accused persons. In view of the nature and circumstances of the case, we commute the death sentence imposed on A-1 Sahdeo, A-4 Subhash, A-5 Chandraveer, A-7 Satyapal and A-10 Parvinder to imprisonment for life." 61. In Raju vs. State of Haryana [(2001) 9 SCC 50] , it has been opined by this Court: "However, the next question is whether this would be a rarest of rare cases where extreme punishment of death is required to be imposed. In the present case, from the confessional statement made by the accused, it would appear that there was no intention on the part of the accused to commit the murder of the deceased child. He caused injury to the deceased by giving two brick blows as she stated that she would disclose the incident at her house. It is true that learned Sessions Judge committed error in recording the evidence of SI Shakuntala, PW 15 with regard to the confessional statement made to her, but in any set of circumstances, the evidence on record discloses that the accused was not having an intention to commit the murder of the girl who accompanied him. On the spur of the moment without there being any premeditation, he gave two brick blows which caused her death. There is nothing on record to indicate that the appellant was having any criminal record nor can he be said to be a grave danger to the society at large. In these circumstances, it would be difficult to hold that the case of the appellant would be rarest of rare case justifying imposition of death penalty." 62. Yet, recently in Amrit Singh vs. State of Punjab [2006 AIR SCW 5712], this Court, in a case where the death was not found to have been intended to be caused, was of the opinion that no case under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code was made out stating: "Imposition of death penalty in a case of this nature, in our opinion, was, thus, improper. Even otherwise, it cannot be said to be a rarest of rare cases. The manner in which the deceased was raped may be brutal but it could have been a momentary lapse on the part of Appellant, seeing a lonely girl at a secluded place. He had no pre-meditation for commission of the offence. The offence may look a heinous, but under no circumstances, it can be said to be a rarest of rare cases." {See also Sheikh Ishaque & Ors. vs. State of Bihar [(1995) 3 SCC 392] , Rony vs. State of Maharashtra [(1998) 3 SCC 625] , Bachan Singh vs. State of Punjab [(1980) 2 SCC 684] and Machhi Singh (supra). 63. This aspect of the matter has recently been considered at some length by this Court in Aloke Nath Dutta (supra). 64. There is another aspect of this matter which cannot be overlooked. Appellant No.1 made a confession. He felt repentant not only while making the confessional statement before the Judicial Magistrate, but also before the learned Sessions Judge in his statement under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Court's decision (1 = petition accepted / positive for appellant, 0 = rejected / negative): 0

Reasoning from the judgment:
0[ds]12. We may, at the outset, place on record that this is one of the rare cases where the witnesses examined on behalf of the prosecution, inter alia, were the employees of the company where the appellants had also been working.We have noticed hereinbefore that the parents of the deceased girl (P.Ws.22 and 23) stated in details as to under what circumstances they had to stay in the waiting room. The Cashier of the Net Work TravelsShri Kapil Kumar Paul, who examined himself as P.W.2, apart from his statements which have been noticed hereinbefore, categorically stated that the appellant No.2, together with the driver and conductor of the bus bearingpersuaded pressed him to allow the bus to leave for Jorhat earlier than the scheduled time, and he refused to accede to their request. It is only because of their conduct he suspected their involvement in the crime. This witness also categorically stated that lock and key of the waiting room would always be with the chawkidar.28. We may now consider the manner in which the confessional statement made by the appellant No.1 was recorded. He was admittedly brought to the Court of Smt. Nirupama Rajkumari, the Judicial Magistrate, 1st Class at Guwahati (P.W.8), for getting his statement recorded on 24.7.2002. The voluntariness and truthfulness of the confession is not in dispute. Appellant No.1 was produced before P.W.8 in her official Chamber at about 4.45 p.m. He was warned that the confession made by him might be used in evidence against him. She recorded the confessional statement of the appellant No.1 being satisfied as regards the voluntariness thereof.