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270
SR IRAN GAN
v.
STAIB OF TAMIL NADU
November 30, 1977
[V. R. KRISHNA !YER, N. L. UNTWALIA AND P. S. KAILASAM, JJ.]
Sentence-Choice between
life term and death
penalty
in
awardiJJR
sentence-Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 (Act II of 1974). Section
354(3),
scope of.
,
Tbe appellant young in age and a mental case was prosecuted, convicted
and sentenced to death for
the offence of triple murders, since the testimony
of dementia fell far short of the prescription in s. 84, I.P.C. The appeal before
the High Court having failed, this Court granted Special leave confined to the
question of sentence.
Maintaining the conviction but modifying the death sentence to one of life
imprisonment, the court,
HELD : In this agonisingly sensitive area of sentencing, especially in the
choice between life term and death penalty, a wide spectrum of circumstances
attract judicial attention since they are all inarticulately implied in the penolo·
gical part of s. 302, I.P.C., read withs. 254(3) Cr. P.C., 1973. The plurality
of factors bearing on the crime and the doer of the crime must carefully enter
the judicial verdict.
The
winds of penological
reform notwithstanding the
prescription in s. 302 binds and death penalty is still permissible in the punitive
pharmacopoeia of India.
In the instant case the lesser penalty of life imprisonment will be a more.
appropriate punishment. [271 A-Cl
Nanu Ram v. State of Assam, A.l.R. 1975 S.C. 762 followed.
CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION : Criminal Appeal No. 470
of 1977.
Appeal by Special Leave from the Judgment and Order
dated
20-4-1976 of the Madras High Court in Criminal Appeal No. 708/75·
and Referred Trial No. 39175.
V. Mayakrishnan, amicus curiae for the Appellant.
A. V. Rangam for the Respondent.
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by
KRISHNA IYER, J.-A toddy tapper, young in age and a mental
case, returning after a day-long toil with his tool, the sickle, and tense
in state, was provoked by some trivias and went into tantrums and
inflicted triple killings, all in one sombre sunset. Th;s bleeding tragedy
Jed to prosecution and conviction, appeal and contlnnation, the unim-
peachable offence being murder.
The defence of insanity tested by the
hoary rule in McNaghten's case,. codified in the Indian Penal Code
over hundred years ago, was rightly dismissed, the testimony of de-
mentia falling far short of the prescription in section 84 I.P.C. We
have discovered no error in the factual finding and must therefore con-
firm the conviction.
Indeed, leave itself was granted confined to the
question of sentence.
J
•
SRIRANGAN v. TAMIL NADU (Krishna Iyer, !.)
271
The trial Judge, whose horror at the multiple homicide unsheathed
the terror of death penalty, decreed capital sentence on the culprit, and
the High Court, deeply disturbed by "the brutal triple murder", set its
seal of approval on guilt and punishment.
A
In the agonisingly sensitive area of sentencing, especially in the
-choice between life term and death penalty, a wide spectrum of cir- · B
cumstances attracts judicial attention, since they are all inarticulately
implied in the penological part of s. 302 1.P.C. read with s. 354(3)
'Cr. P.C. The plurality of factors bearing on the crime and the doer
of the crime must carefully enter the judicial verdict.
The winds of
penological reform notwithstanding, the prescription in s. 302 binds
and death penalty is still permissible in the punitive pharmacopoeia of
India. Even so, the current of precedents and the relevant catena of
C
clement facts, personal, social and other, persuade us to hold that,
even as in Nanu Ram v. State of Assam (A.LR. 1975 S.C. 762), the
lesser penalty of life imprisonment will be a more appropriate punish-
ment here.
We set aside the death sentence and award imprisonment for life
io the appellant under s. 302 l.P.C.
The appeal is disposed of
D
.accordingly.
Sentence reduced.
Lex