The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : “Exercise of power to award death sentence inevitable in deserving cases”

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Friday, Dec 07, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

“Exercise of power to award death sentence inevitable in deserving cases”

A. Subramani

Court must give special reasons for imposing the penalty and such reasons shall not be desolate, says Division Bench

“Accused were aware that students were inside”
Judge reiterates need to balance rights of the criminal and victims

CHENNAI: When the power to award death sentence is vested with the court for the purpose of being used in deserving cases, exercise of such power is inevitable and will be within the spirit of penal provisions, the Madras High Court observed on Thursday.

Confirming the death penalty imposed on three persons found guilty of torching a bus carrying Tamil Nadu Agricultural University students in February 2000, a Division Bench, comprising Justice D. Murugesan and Justice V. Periya Karuppiah, said: “The court must be alive to the basic criminal justice system that while the innocent should not be punished, the guilty should also not be let off. The only requirement is that the court must give special reasons for imposing the death penalty and such reasons shall not be desolate.”

The Division Bench pointed out that while setting the vehicle ablaze, the accused were aware that its rear door could not be opened and that a number of girl students were inside.

They poured petrol through the front door and set afire the bus ignoring repeated pleas from the students to allow them to get down.

Pointing out that an engine of a motorcycle was kept running while the offence was being committed, the Judges said it showed the intention of the culprits to commit the crime and flee.

The Bench stressed that courts were required to adopt a rational approach and judge the evidence by its intrinsic worth. “Hyper technicalities or figment of imagination should not be allowed to divest the court of its responsibility of sifting and weighing evidence…”

Reiterating the need to balance the rights of the criminal and the victims of crime, the Judges further said: “This court is alive not only to the right of the criminal to be awarded just and fair punishment by administering justice tempered with such mercy as the criminal may justly deserve, but also to the rights of the victims of the crime to have the assailant appropriately punished and society’s reasonable expectation from the court for the appropriate deterrent punishment conforming to the gravity of the offence and consistent with the public abhorrence for the heinous crime committed by the accused.”

Noting that courts could not ignore the erosion in values of life, the Bench said: “Such erosions cannot be given a bonus in favour of those who are guilty of polluting society and mankind.”

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