Summarize the following court judgment. N: Criminal Appeal No. 277 of 1974. Appeal by Special Leave from the Judgment and order dated the 22nd February	 1974 of the Allahabad High Court Lucknow Bench in Criminal Appeal No. 498 of 1973 and Capital Sentence No. 13 of 1973. A. N. Mulla and N. section Das Behal for the appellant. O. P. Rana for the respondent. The Judgment of the Court was delivered by BHAGWATI	 J. This appeal	 by special leave	 is limited only to the question of sentence. The appellant has been sentenced to death for an offence under section 302 of the Penal Code. The question is: Should the extreme penalty of death be commuted to one of life imprisonment? To answer the question it is necessary to state a few facts. The appellant and a few others were tried in the Court of the Sessions Judge	 Unnao for offences under section 148 and section 302 read with section 149 of the Indian Penal Code. The learned Sessions Judge	 on an appreciation of the evidence	 found that the appellant	 Sheo Dayal	 Mihi Lal	 Dularey and Mewa Lal had formed an unlawful assembly and in pursuance of its common object	 the appellant had intentionally caused the death of one Ram Kumar by by inflicting on him a severe injury with a bank severing his head from the body and then carried away the head in an angaucha in a most brutal and inhuman fashion. On this finding	 the learned Sessions Judge convicted the appellant	 Sheo Dayal	 Mihi Lal	 Dularey and Mewa Lal of offences under section 148 and section 302 read with section 149 and sentenced each of them to rigorous imprisonment for one fear for the former offence and to death for the latter. The appellant	 Sheo Dayal	 Mihi Lal	 Dularey and Mewa Lal preferred an appeal to the High Court against the order of conviction and sentence recorded against them and their case was also referred to the High Court for confirmation of the death sentence. The High Court agreed with the findings reached by the learned Sessions Judge and confirmed the conviction of Sheo Dayal	 Mini Lal	 Dularey and Mewa Lal under section 148 and section 302 read with section 149	 but reduced their sentence to one of life imprisonment for the offence under section 302 read with section 149 and so far as the appellant was concerned	 the conviction was converted to one under section 302 and the sentence of death was maintained. The appellant thereupon preferred an application for special leave and on that application	 special leave was granted by this Court limited only to the question of sentence. Now	 there can be no doubt that the crime committed by the appellant was a most reprehensible and heinous crime which dis 276 closed brutality and callousness to human life and no extenuating circumstances could be pointed out on behalf of the appellant which would assuage the conscience of the Court and persuade it not to inflict the extreme penalty of death on the appellant. The only circumstance on which reliance could be placed on behalf of the appellant for mitigating the rigour of the punishment to be inflicted on him was his tender age at the time of the commission of the offence. The record of the case shows that the appellant was about sixteen years of age at the time when he committed this brutal crime. The question is : whether this could be regarded as a valid circumstance for invoking the clemency of penal justice? The legislative history in regard to the subject of capital punishment shows that there has been significant change in thinking and approach since India became free. Prior to the amendment of section 367(5) of the Code of Criminal Procedure by Act 26 of 1955	 the normal rule was to impose sentence of death on a person convicted for murder and	 if a lesser sentence was to be imposed	 the Court was required to record reasons in writing. But by Act 26 of 1955 this provision in section 367(5) was omitted	 with the result that the Court became free to award either death sentence or life imprisonment and no longer was death sentence the rule and life imprisonment the exception. Then again a further progress was made in the same direction by section 354(3) of the Criminal Procedure Code	 1973. That section provides that when the conviction is for an offence punishable with death or	 in the alternative	 with imprisonment for life or imprisonment for a term of years	 the judgment shall state the reasons for the sentence awarded	 and	 in the case of sentence or death	 the special reasons for such sentence. It will be seen that the unmistakable shift in the legislative emphasis is that for murder	 life imprisonment should be the rule and capital punishment the exception to be resorted to only for special reasons. It is only where	 in view of the peculiar facts and circumstances	 there are special reasons that death sentence may be awarded : otherwise life sentence should be the ordinary rule. This legislative provision in the new Code of Criminal Procedure clearly shows	 as pointed out by Krishna Iyer	 J.	 in E. Anamma vs State of Andhra Pradesh(1)	 "that the disturbed conscience of the State on the vexed question of legal threat to life by way of death sentence has sought to express itself legislatively	 the stream of tendency being towards cautious	 partial abolition and a retreat from total retention. " The seminal trends in current sociological thinking and penal strategy	 tampered as they are by humanistic attitude and deep concern for the worth of the human person frown upon death penalty and regard it as cruel and savage punishment to be inflicted only in exceptional cases. It is against this background of legislative thinking which reflects the social mood and realities and the direction of the penal and processual laws that we have to consider whether the tender age of an accused is a factor contraindicative of death penalty. 277 The Law Commission	 in the 35th Report made by it on capital punishment fully considered whether the Indian Penal Code should specify the minimum age of the offender who can be sentenced to death	 and after examining the position under the Children 's Acts of various States it expressed the following opinion : "We feel that	 having regard to the need for uniformity	 to the views expressed on the subject	 and to the consideration that a person under 18 can be regarded as intellectually immature	 there is a fairly strong case for adopting the age of 18 as the minimum for death sentence. we are aware that cases will occasionally arise where a person under 18 is found guilty of a reprehensible killing	 or	 conversely	 a person above 18 is found to be immature and not deserving of the highest punishment. A line has	 however	 to be drawn somewhere and we think that 18 can be adopted without undue risk. We	 therefore recommend that a person who is under the age of 18 years at the time of the commission of the offence should not be sentenced to death. A provision to that effect can be conveniently inserted in the Indian Penal Code as section 558. " The Law Commission in its 42nd Report on the Indian Penal Code agreed with this recommendation of the previous Law Commission vide paragraph 3.34 of the 42nd Report of the Law Commission. The Central Government appears to have accepted this recommendation and a provision to that effect is to be found in the Indian Penal Code (Amendment) Bill	 1972. This being the current sociological and juristic thinking on the subject	 it would be legitimate for the Court to refuse to impose death sentence on an accused convicted of murder if it finds that at the time of commission of the offence he was under 18 years of age. Krishna Iyer	 J.	 also pointed out in E. Anamma vs State of Andhra Pradesh (supra) that "where the murderer is too young the elemency of penal justice helps him"	 and a murderer who is below 18 years age at the time of the commission of the offence would certainly be "too young". The appellant in the present case was	 as pointed out above	 just around 16 years of age at the time when he committed the offence and	 therefore	 in the light of the above discussion he would be entitled to the elemency of penal justice and it would not be appropriate to impose the extreme penalty of death on him. We accordingly commute the sentence of death imposed on the appellant and convert it to one of life imprisonment. P.B.R. Appeal allowed and sentence reduced.

The legislative history in regard to the subject of capital punishment shows that there has been a significant change in thinking and approach Since India became free. Prior to the amendment of section 367(5) of the Code of Criminal Procedure by Act 26 of 1955	 the normal rule was to impose sentence of death on a person convicted for murder and if a lesser sentence was to be imposed	 the Court was required to record reasons in writing. But by Act 26 of 1955	 this provision in section 367(5) was omitted with the result that the Court became free to award either death sentence or life imprisonment	 and no longer was death sentence the rule and life imprisonment the exception. Then again a further progress was made in the same direction by section 354(3) of the Criminal Procedure Code	 1973. That section provides that when the conviction is for an offence punishable with death or in the alternative with imprisonment for life or imprisonment for a term of years	 the judgment shall state the reasons for the sentence awarded and	 in the case of sentence of death	 the special reasons for such sentence. The unmistakable shift in the legislative emphasis is that for murder	 life imprisonment should be the rule and capital punishment the exception to be resorted to only for special reasons. It is only where	 in view of the peculiar facts and circumstances	 there are special reasons that the death sentence may be awarded: otherwise life sentence offence would certinly be "too young." [277G; E	 F] The seminal trends in current sociological thinking and penal strategy tempered as they are by humanistic attitude and deep concern for the worth of the human person	 frown upon death penalty and regard it as cruel and savage punishment to be inflicted only in exceptional cases. [276G] In the instant case the appellant was charged with an offence of murder by severing the head of the deceased from the body and then carrying it away in a most brutal and inhuman manner. The trial court convicted and sentenced him to death. Both the conviction and sentence were upheld by the High Court. On the question of sentence	 Allowing the appeal to this Court	 ^ HELD: The appellant was just around 16 years of age at the time when he committed the offence and	 therefore	 he would be entitled to the clemency of penal justice. It would not be appropriate to impose the extreme penalty of death. Taking into account the current sociological and juristic thinking as could be seen from the recommendation of the Law Commission which appears to have been incorporated in the Indian Penal Code (Amendment) Bill 1972	 it would be legitimate for the Court to refuse to impose death sentence on an accused convicted of murder	 if it finds that at the time of the commission of the offence the appellant was under 18 years of age. A murderer who is below 18 years of age at the time of commission of the offence would certainly be "too young." [277G; E	 F] E. Anamma vs State of Andhra Pradesh	 A.I.R. 1974 S.C. 799	 followed.