Holding

The Supreme Court commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment and directed that the conviction shall remain in force for the remainder of the appellant's natural life, without entitlement to remission.

Summary

Swamy Shraddananda, convicted of murdering his wife Shakereh under sections 302 and 201 IPC, was sentenced to death by the trial court and the Karnataka High Court affirmed the sentence. The Supreme Court, hearing a split decision on sentencing, noted that while the murder was cold‑blooded and motivated by greed, the death penalty was not warranted in the "rarest of rare" category. The Court examined the legal effect of a life sentence, rejecting the practice of treating it as a 14‑year term and holding that remission cannot reduce a life term unless expressly ordered by the appropriate Government. It also clarified that the court cannot direct the Government to withhold remission, but it can order that a life sentence awarded as a death‑penalty substitute be served for the remainder of the convict's life. Consequently, the death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment without any right to remission, and the appellant was ordered to remain incarcerated for the rest of his life.

Issues considered

The appropriateness of affirming the death sentence versus commuting it to life imprisonment.
Whether a life imprisonment sentence can be treated as a fixed term of fourteen years for remission purposes.
The interpretation of Section 57 of the IPC regarding the equivalence of life imprisonment to twenty years.
The scope of the appropriate Government's power under CrPC sections 432, 433, 433A to grant remission or commutation for life sentences.
Whether the judiciary can direct the Government not to consider remission for a convict sentenced to life as a substitute for death.

Legislation cited

Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973s. 235(2), s. 354(3), s. 401, s. 432, s. 433, s. 433A
Indian Penal Code, 1860s. 201, s. 302, s. 45, s. 53, s. 54, s. 55, s. 57
Prisons Act, 1894

Subjects

death penaltylife imprisonmentremissionSection 57 IPCcriminal justice systemsentencingrarest of rarecommutationmurdercircumstantial evidence

Judgment

[2008] 11 S.C.R. 93

SWAMY SHRADDANANDA @ MURALI MANOHAR A
MISHRA
V.
STATE OF KARNATAKA
(Criminal Appeal No. 454 of 2006)
B
JULY 22, 2008
[B.N. AGRAWAL, G.S. SINGHVI AND AFTAB ALAM, JJ.]

Sentence/Sentencing:
Death penalty/Life imprisonment - Cold blooded mur- C
der of wife - Circumstantial evidence - Conviction and death
sentence by trial court and High court - Supreme Court up-
holding conviction - Difference of opinion as regards sen-
tence- Reference to Larger Bench to decide the sentence -
Held: The murder was planned and cold blooded and for highly D
depraved motive - But in view of certain facts of the case and
in view of larger issues such as inept criminal justice system
and want of uniformity in the sentencing process by the Courts
etc., death penalty substituted to imprisonment for life - Since
the sentence of imprisonment for fourteen years which is con- E
sidered as life imprisonment, does not commensurate to the
crime of the convict, direction not to release the convict tiff the
rest of his. life - Penal Code, 1860 - ss. 302 and 201.
Life sentence - Computation of - Held: Life imprison- F
ment means imprisonment for the rest of the life of the convict
- s. 57 /PC does not limit the life imprisonment for a term of
twenty years - A convict undergoing life imprisonment has no
right to claim remission -Remission granted to fife convicts
under Prison Manuals by deemed conversion of life impris-
onment into one for fixed term of twenty years is without any G
sanction and against the mandate of Supreme Court deci-
sions - There has to be a special category where death pen-
alty is substituted by imprisonment for life or. for a term in ex-
cess of fourteen years and that category is required to be put
93 H
94 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2008] 11 S.C.R.
,..
A beyond application of remission - Sentence of life imprison-
ment as a substitute for death penalty, to be carried out strictly
as directed by the court -Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 -
ss. 432, 433 and 433A (as inserted by amendment made in
1978) - Penal Code, 1860 - ss. 45, 53, 54, 55 and 57 -
B Kamataka Prisons Rules, 1974 - Kamataka Prisons Manual,
1978- Chapter XII- r. 214 (c) - Prisons Act, 1894.
Appellant was cohvicted u/ss. 302 and 201 IPC by
trial court and sentenced to death. High Court confirmed
his conviction as well as the sentence. Division Bench of
c Supreme Court confirmed the conviction, but there was
difference of opinion as regards sentence. Hence the
matter was referred to larger Bench.
!Jisposing of the appeal, the Court .
D HELD: ·1.1 The court is hesitant in. endorsing the
death penalty awarded to the appellant by the trial court .ll,

· and confirmed by the High Court. The absolute irrevoca-
' bility of the death penalty renders it completely incom-
· patible to the slightest hesitation on the part of the court.
E Therefore the death sentence given to the appellant by
the trial court and confirmed by the High court is substi-
tuted by imprisonment for life. The sentence of imprison-
ment for a term of fourteen years, that is generally the eu-
phemism for life imprisonment is equally, if not more, un-
F acceptable. The punishment does not commensurate to
the appellant's crime. Therefore, it is directed that the ap-
pelf ant shall not be released from prison till the rest of his
life. [Paras 37, 38 and 69] [1:24 D-F- 144 F-G]
I

1.2 The crime committed by the appellant was of
G course very grave and the motive behind the crime was
highly depraved. The appellant though killed the de-
ceased in a planned and cold blooded manner but at least ;IC"
this much can be said in his favour that he devised the
plan so that the victim could not know till the end and
H even for a moment that she was betrayed by the one she
SWAMY SHRADDANANDA@ MURALI MANOHAR MISHRA 95
v. STATE OF KARNATAKA
;..
trusted most. Further though the way of killing appears A
quite ghastly it may be said that it did not cause any men-
tal or physical pain to the victim. Thirdly, the appellant
confessed his guilt at least partially before the High
Court.[Paras 36 and 37] [124 8-D]
B
-~
1.3 There are also some larger issues that make the
. Court feel reluctant in confirming the death sentence of
the appellant. The inability of the Criminal Justice Sys-
tern to deal with all major crimes equally effectively and
the want of uniformity in the sentencing process by the
Court lead to a marked imbalance in the end results. The
c
question of death penalty is not free from the subjective
element and the confirmation of death sentence or its
commutation by this Court depends a good deal on the
personal predilection of the judges constituting the bench.
[Paras 33, 34 and 35] [124 A-8 123-D,F] D
Bachan Singh vs. State of Punjab, AIR 1980 SC 898;
Jagmohan Singh vs. State of UP AIR 1973 SC 947 - relied
on.
Machhi Singh v. State of Punjab 1983 (3) SCC 470; E
Aloke Nath Dutta vs. State of West Bengal, 2006 (13) SCALE
467- referred to.
McGautha vs. California 1971(402) US 183; Gregg v.
Georgia 428 US 153 - referred to.
F
A report "Lethal Lottery, The Death Penalty in India" com-
piled jointly by Amnesty International India and Peoples Union
For Civil Liberties, Tamil Nadu ana Puducherry- referred to.
2.1 A convict undergoing life imprisonment has no
right to claim remission or commutation under Cr.P.C., G
Prisons Act and the Rules framed by different States. It is
not correct to say that it is not open to the Court to direct
the appropriate government not to consider the case of a
convict for grant of remission in sentence. it cannot be
said that giving punishment for an offence was a judicial H
96 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2008] 11 S.C.R.

A function but once the judgment was pronounced and pun-
ishment awarded the matter no longer remained in the
hands of the Court or that the execution of the punish-
ment when passed into the hands of the .executive, un-
der the scheme of the statute, the Court had no control
B over the execution. [Paras 48, 52 and 56] [130 G- 133 CE;
134 H- 135 A]
Gopal Vina.yak Godse vS: The State of Maharashtra, 1961
(3) SCR 440; Mohd.Munna vs. Union oflndia, 2005 (7) SCC
416 - relied on.
c State (Government of NCT of Delhi) vs. Prem Raj, 2003
(7) sec 121 - distinguished.
Delhi Administration vs. Manohar Lal, 2002 (7) SCC
222; State of Punjab vs. Kesar·singh, 1996 (5) SCC 495 -
o referred to.
2.2 Section 57 IPC does not in any way limit the plln-
ishment of imprisonment for life to a term of twenty years.
Section 57 is only for calculating fractions of terms of
punishment and provides that imprisonment for life shall
E be reckoned as equivalent to imprisonment for twenty
years. The object and purpose of Section 57 will be clear
by simply referring to Sections 65, 116, 119, 129 and 511
IPC. [Para 55] [134 D-E]
Gopal Vinayak Godse vs. The State of Maharashtra, 1961
F (3) SCR 440- followed
Ashok Kumar alias Golu vs. Union of India 1991 (3) SCC
498 -- relied on.
2.3 Remission cannot be applied to imprisonment for
G life. The way in which remission is allowed according to
the provisions of Prisons Act it can only apply to a fixed
term and life imprisonment being for the rest of life, is by
nature indeterminate. [Para 58] [135-F G]
2.4 In the State of Karnataka as well as in' the State of
H Bihar, remission is granted to life convicts by deemed con-
SWAMY SHRADDANANDA@ MURALI MANOHAR MISHRA 97
~
v. STATE OF KARNATAKA
version of life imprisonment into a fixed term of twenty A
years. The deemed conversion of life imprisonment into
one for fixed term by executive orders issued by the State
Governments apparently flies in the face of a long line of
decisions by this Court and no provision of law was
brought to the notice of the Court to sanction such a B
course. Life convicts are granted remission and released
from prison on completing the fourteen year term without
} any sound legal basis. One can safely assume that the po-
sition would be no better in the other States. This Court
can also take judicial notice of the fact that remission is c
allowed to life convicts in the most mechanical manner
without any sociological or psychiatric appraisal of the
convict and without any proper assessment as to the ef-
feet of the early release of a particular convict on the soci-
ety. The grant of remission is the rule and remission is de- 0
) nied, in the rarest of the rare cases. [Para 63] [139 8-F]
Gopal Vinayak Godse vs. The State of Maharashtra, 1961
(3) SCR 440- followed
Shri Bhagwan vs. State of Rajasthan, (2001) 6 SCC 296;
E
State of M.P vs. Ratan Singh, (1976) 3 SCC 470; Pandit
Kishori Lal vs. King Emperor, AIR 1954 PC 64 - relied on.
2.5 Section 433A was inserted in Cr.P.C. imposing a
restriction on the power of remission or commutation in
certain cases. All that is changed by Section 433A is that F
"" before its insertion an imprisonment for life in most cases
worked out to a dozen years of imprisonment and after
its introduction it works out to fourteen years' imprison-
ment. But the observation of this Court in Jagmohan's case
that this cannot be accepted as an adequate substitute G
for the death penalty still holds true. [Para 64] [140 8-0]
-i
Jagmohan Singh vs. State of UP AIR 1973 SC 947 -
relied on.
2.6 The legal position as enunciated by this court and H
98 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2008] 11 S.C.R.

A the unsound way in which remission is actually allowed
in cases of life imprisonment make outa very strong case
to make a special category for the very few- cases where
the death penalty might be substituted by the punishment
ofc imprisonment for life or imprisonment for a term in ex-
B cess of fourteen years and to put that category beyond
the application of remission. [Para 65] [143-0 F]
2.7 The issue of sentencing has two aspects. A sen-
tence may be excessive and unduly harsh or it may be
C highly disproportionately inadequate. When an appellant
comes to this court c~rrying a death sentence awarded
by the trial court an.d confirmed by the High Court, this
Court may find, as in the present appeal, tha~ the case
just falls short of the rarest of the rare category and may
feel somewhat reluctant in endorsing the death sentence'.
D But at the same time, having regard to the nature of the
crime, the Court may strongly feel that a sentence of life
imprisonment that subject to remission normally works
out to a term of fourteen years would be grossly dispro-
portionate and inadequate. If the Court's option is limited
E only to two punishments, one a sentence of imprison-
ment, for all intents and purposes, of not more than four-
teen years and the other death, the court may feel tempted
and find itself nudged into endorsing the death penalty.
Such a course would indeed be disastrous. A far more
F. just, reasonable and proper course would be to expand
the options and to take over what, as a matter of fact, law-
fully belongs to the court, i.e., the vast hiatus between
fourteen years' imprisonment and death. The Court would
take recourse to the expanded option primarily because
G in the facts of the case, the sentence of fourteen years
imprisonment would amount to no punishment at all.
[Para 66] [143-F,C]
2.8 The punishment of imprisonment for life handed
down by the Court means a sentence of imprisonment
H for the convict for the rest of his life. The sentence of life
SWAMY SHRADDANANDA@ MURALI MANOHAR MISHRA 99
v. STATE OF KARNATAKA
lie-
imprisonment when awarded as a substitute for death A
penalty would be carried out strictly as directed by the
Court. This Court, therefore, must lay down a good and
sound legal basis for putting the punishment of impris-
onment for life, awarded as substitute for death penalty,
beyond any remission and to be carried out as directed B
by the Court so that it may be followed, in appropriate
cases as a uniform policy not only by this Court but also
by the High Courts, being the superior Courts in their re-
spective States. [Paras 38 and 54] [125-A C; 134 A]
Maru Ram vs. Union of India 1981 (1) SCC 107; Gopal
c
Vinayak Godse vs. The State of Maharashtra and Ors. 1961
(3) SCR 440 - followed
Oa/bir Singh and Ors. vs. State of Punjab, 1979 (3) SCC
745; Subhash Chander vs. Krishan La and Ors. 2001 (4) SCC D
458; State of M.P vs. Ratan Singh, 1976 (3) SCC 470;
)
Bhagirath VS. Delhi Administration, 1985 (2) sec 580; Zahid .
Hussein VS. State of West Bengal, 2001 (3) sec 750 Shri
Bhagwan vs. State of Rajasthan, 2001 (6) SCC 296; Prakash
Dhawal Khaimar (Patil) vs. State of Maharashtra, 2002 (2) SCC
E
35; Ram Anup Singh and Ors. vs. State of Bihar, 2002 (6)
SCC 686; Mohd. Munna vs. Union of India, 2005 (7) SCC
417; Jayawant Dattatraya Suryarao vs. State of Maharashtra,
2001 (10) SCC 109; Nazir Khan and Ors. vs. State of Delhi,
2003 (8) SCC 461; Sat Pal vs. State of Haryana, 1992 (4)
SCC 172; Naib Singh vs. State of Punjab 1983 (2) SCC 454; F
Ashok Kumar alias Golu vs. Union of India 1991 (3) SCC 498;
Laxman Naskar(Life Convict) vs. State ofWB.,, 2000 (7) SCC
626; Kama/anantha vs. State of Tamil Nadu, 2005 (5) SCC
194; C.A.Pious vs. State of Kera/a, 2007 (8) SCC 312 - re-
lied on. G.

2.9 Further, the formalisation of a special category
~ of sentence, though for an extremely few number of

-- cases, shall have the great advantage of having the death
penalty on the statute book but to actually use it as little
H
100 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2008) 11 S.C. R.
-1'
A as possible, really in the rarest of the rare cases. This
would only be a reassertion of the Constitution Bench
decision in Bachan Singh case besides being in accord
with the modern trends in penology.[Para 67]
Bachan Singh vs. State of Punjab AIR 1980 SC 898-
B
relied on. ;.....
2.10 There is a good and strong basis for the Court
to substitute a death sentence by life imprisonment or by
a term in excess of fourteen years and further to dire.ct
c that the convict must not be released from the prison for
the rest of his life or for the actual term as specified in the
order, as the case may be.[Para 68]
2.11 This decision deals with the provisions of re-
mission etc. under the Code of Criminal Procedure Code,
D the Prisons Acts and the Rules farmed thereunder by the
different States. Any observation of direction in this deci- .:4.
sion has no bearing on the constitutional provisions
converning remission, commutation, suspension of sen-
tences etc. that are in the nature of the State's sovereign
E power. [134 G- 135-A]
Case Law Reference
AIR 1980 SC 898 Relied on Para 22
AIR 1973 SC 947 Relied on Para 22
F
1971(402) us 183 Referred to Para 25
fo.-
428 us 153 Referred to Para 27
1983 (3) sec 410 Referred to Para 27
2006 (13) SCALE 467 Referred to Para 31
G
1919 (3) sec 745 Relied on Para 38
1981 (1) sec 101 Followed Para 40
)o
2001 (4) sec 458 Relied on Para 40 ,,_
H 1976 (3) sec 470 Relied on Para 40
SWANrf SHRADDANANDA@ MURALI MANOHAR MISHRA 101
v. STATE OF KARNATAKA
1985 (2) sec 580 · Relied on Para 40 A

2001 (3) sec 750 Relied on Para 40
2001 (6) sec 296 Relied on Para 41
2002 (2) sec 35 Relied on Para 42
B
..... 2002 (6) sec 686 Relied on Para 43
2005 (7) sec 417 Relied on Para 44
2001 (1 O) sec 109 Relied on Para 46
2003 (8) sec 461 Relied on Para 47
c
1992 (4) sec 112 Relied on Para 47
1961 (3) SCR 440 Followed Para 48
2003 (7) sec 121 Distinguished Para 51
2002 (7) sec 222 Referred to Para 51 D
1996 (5) sec 495 Referred to Para 51
1983 (2) sec 454 Relied on Para 54
1991 (3) sec 498 Relied on Para 54
2000 (7) sec 626 Relied on Para 54 E
2005 (5) sec 194 Relied on Para 54
2001 (8) sec 312 Relied on Para 54
AIR 1954 PC 64 Relied on Para 65
F
CRIMINALAPPELLATE JURISDICTION: Criminal Appeal
No. 454 of 2006

From the Judgment and Order dated 19.9.2005 of the High
Court of Karnataka at Bangalore in Criminal Reference No. 6
of 2005 c/w. Criminal Appeal No. 1086 of 2005 G
Varinder Kumar sharma, Varun Thakur and Alok Bagrecha
for the Appellant.
~-
Sanjay R. Hegde, Amit Chawla, S.J. Aristotle, A. Rohen
Singh and Vikrant Yadav for the Respondent. H
102
SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2008] 11 S.C.R.

A U.U. Lalit, Rana Mukherjee, Uttara Babbar, Siddharth
Gautam and Goodwill lr.deevar him for Complainant.
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by
AFTAB ALAM,J. 1. Death to a cold blooded murderer or
B life, albeit subject to severe restrictions of personal liberty, is
the vexed question that once again arises before this court. A
verdict of death would cut the matter cleanly, apart from cutting
short the life of the condemned person. But a verdict of impris-
onment for life is likely to give rise to certain questions. (Life
C ;:ifter all is full of questions!). How would the sentence of impris-
onment for life work out in actuality? The Court may feel that the
punishment more just and proper, in the facts of the case, would
be imprisonment for life With life given its normal meaning and
as defined in section 45 of the Indian Penal Code. The Court
o may be of the view that the punishment of death awarded by the
trial court and confirmed by the High Court needs to be substi-
tuted by life imprisonment, literally for life or in any case for a
period far in excess of fourteen years. The Court in its judgment
may make its intent explicit and state clearly that the sentence
E handed over to the convict is imprisonment till his last breath or,
life permitting, imprisonment for a term not less than twenty,
twenty five or even thirty years. But once the judgment is sipned
and pronounced, the execution of the sentence passes Into the
hands of the executive and is governed by different provisions
of law. What is the surety that the sentence awarded to the con-
F vict after painstaking and anxious deliberation would be car-
ried out in actuality? The sentence of imprisonment for life, liter-
ally, shall not by application of different kinds of remission, turn
out to be the ordinary run of the mill life term that works out to no
more than fourteen years. How can the sentence of imprison-
G ment for life (till its full natural span) given to a convict as a sub-
stitute for the death sentence be viewed differently and segre-
gated from the ordinary life imprisonment given as the sentence
Jr
of first choice? These are the questions that arise for consider-
ation in this case.
H
SWAMY SHRADDANANDA@ MURALI MANOHAR MISHRA 103
v. STATE OF KARNATAKA [AFTAB ALAM,J.]

2. The conviction of the appellant, Swamy Shraddananda A
@ Murali Manohar Mishra under Sections 302 and 201 of the
Indian Penal Code has attained finality and is rio longer open to
scrutiny. The appellant was convicted by the learned XXV City
Sessions Judge, Bangalore City, under the aforesaid two sec-
tions by judgement and order dated 20 May, 2005 in SC No.212/ B
1994. The Sessions Judge sentenced him to death for the of-
fence of murder and to a term of five years rigorous imprison-
ment and fine of rupees ten thousand for causing disappear-
ance of evidences of the offence; in default of payment of fine
the direction was to undergo simple imprisonment for one year. c
The appellant's appeal (Criminal Appeal No.1086 of 2005)
against the judgment and order passed by the trial court and
the reference made by the Sessions Judge under section 366
of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Criminal Referred Case
No.6 of 2005) were heard together by the Karnataka High Court. o
The High Court confirmed the conviction and the death sen-
tence awarded to the appellant and by judgment and order dated
19 September, 2005 dismissed the appellant's appeal and ac-
cepted the reference made by the trial court without any modifi-
cation in the conviction or sentence. Against the High Courtjudg- E
ment the appellant has come to this Court in this appeal. The
Appeal was earlier heard by a bench of two judges. Both the
honourable judges unanimously upheld the appellant's convic-
tion for the two offences but they were unable to agree to the
punishment meted out to the appellant. S. B. Sinha J. felt that in F
the facts and circumstances of the case the punishment of life
imprisonment, rather than death would serve the ends of jus-
tice. He, however, made it clear that the appellant would not be
released from prison till the end of his life. M. Katju J., on the
other hand, took the view that the appellantdeserved nothing
but death. It is thus on the limited, though very important and G

• intractable question of sentence that this appeal has come be-
fore us.

3. This takes us to the facts of the case that has all the
elements of high drama. It has a man's vile greed coupled with H
104 .
SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2008] 11 S.C.R.

A the devil's cunning; a woman's craving for a son, coupled with
extreme credulity and gullibility and a daughter's deep and abid-
---
ing love for her mother coupledwith remarkable perseverance
to see through the lies behind her mother's mysterious disap-
pearance. But a man's life can not be decided in three sen-
B tences and we must.see the prosecution case, as established
....
up to this court in some greater detail.
4. Shakereh, the deceased victim of the crime, came from
a highly reputed and wealthy background. She was the grand
C daughter of Sir Mirza Ismail, a former Dewan of the Princely
State of Mysore and the daughter of Mr. Ghulam Hussain
Namaze and Mrs. Gauhar Taj Na maze. She held vast and very
valuable landed properties in her own right. Among her various
properties was a bungalow at No.81, Richmond Road, Banga-
lore, constructed over nearly 38000 square foot of land that she
D had got in Hiba (oral gift) from her parent's side. Another was a
large piece of land measuring 40,000 square foot on Wellington
Street that she had got in dowry at the time of marriage.
Shakereh was married to Mr. Akbar Khaleeli, a member of the
Indian Foreign Service. They had four daughters from the mar-
E riage. Shakereh came to know the appellant, Murali Manohar
Mishra who called himself Swamy Shraddananda, for the first
time in 1983 when she and her family were visiting the erst-
while Nawab of Rampur in New Delhi. The appellant was intro-
duced as someone who was looking after the Rampur proper-
F ties and was said to be quite adept in managing urban landed
estates. Shakereh, at that time was facing some difficulties
under the urban land ceiling law and she asked the appellant to
come over to Bangalore and help her in sorting out the prob-
lems concerning her properties. Soon thereafter Akbar Khaleeli
G was posted as a diplomat to Iran. In those days Iran was not a
family-station for Indian diplomats and hence, he went alone
leaving Shakereh behind in Bangalore. The appellant then came
to Bangalore and started living in a part of her house, 81 Rich-
mondRoad, purportedly to assist in the proper management of
H her properties. Apparently, more than helping in property mat-
SWAMY SHRADDANANDA@ MURALI MANOHAR MISHRA 105
v. STATE OF KARNATAKA [AFTAB ALAM,J.]
... ters he worked on her suppressed though strong desire for a A
.
( son and was able to convince her that with his occult powers he
r
could make her beget a son. In 1985, Shakereh and Akbar
Khaleeli got divorced. Shakereh then proceeded to marry the
appellant. She paid no heed to the opposition from family and
friends and finally got married to the appellant on 17 April, 1986 8
under the Special Marriage Act and the marriage was regis-
tered at the Sub-Registrar's Office, Mayo Hall, Bangalore. Af-
ter marriage they lived together at 81 Richmond Road. For do-
mestic chores they engaged a couple, a man called Raju to
work as gardener-cum handyman and his wife Josephine to c
work as maid servant. They lived in the servant's quarter of the
bungalow.
5. The daughters from the first marriage were most of the
time staying abroad.
D
6. After marriage Shakereh not only showered her love
) and affection on the appellant but also her material wealth. She
executed a testamentary will in his favour besides a general
Power of Attorney appointing him as her agent and attorney.
She opened a number of bank accounts jointly with the appel-
E
lant and also took several bank lockers in their joint names.
They also started together a private company called S.S. Hous-
ing Private Limited of which they alone were the partners.

7. Notwithstanding her matrimonial adventures Shakereh's
relations with her daughters and her parents continued to be F
more or less as before. They met from time to time and kept in
touch by speaking on the telephone at regular intervals.

8. Then by the end of May 1991, Shakereh suddenly and
mysteriously disappeared. She was last met by her mother Mrs.
Gauhar Namaze (examined before the trial court as PW-25) on G
13April, 1991. Her daughter, Sabah Khaleeli (examined as PW-
5) last spoke to her on telephone on 19 April, 1991 and accord-
~ ing to the two servants, Raju and Josephine (PWs-18 & 19 re-
1lf spectively), they last saw her in the company of the appellant in
the morning of 28 May, 1991. Thereafter, Shakereh was not H
106 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2008] 11 S.C.R.

A seen or spoken to by anyone. At that time she was about forty
years old. ·
9. When Sabah did not receive any call from her mother
nor was she able to get through to her on telephone she en-
B quired about her from the appellant who said that she had gone
to Hyderabad. In June 1991, when she contacted again he told
her that her mother had gone'to Kutch to attend the wedding of
a wealthy diamond merchant. A week later he told her that
Shakereh was keeping a low profile due to some income tax
C problems. Exasperated by the evasive and vague replies by
the appellant, Sabah came down to Bangalore but found no
trace of her mother in her house. The appellant then said that
Shakereh was pregnant and she had gone to the United States
of America to deliver the child. He also said that she had got
herself admitted in Roosevelt Hospital. Sabah made enquiries
D and came to learn that Roosevelt Hospital records did not show
admission of anyone by the name of Shakereh or matching her
description. ·she confronted the appellant and accused him of
giving false information about her mother. He tried to explain
that Shakereh had, in fact, gone to London but she wanted to
E keep her whereabouts confidential. However all stories fabri-
cated by the appellant about her mother lay totally exposed to
Sabah when she called on him in a hotel room in Bombay and
chanced upon the passport of her mother lying around. A glance
at the passport made it clear that its holder had not gone to the
F United.States or the United Kingdom or as a matter of fact any-
where out of the country. At this stage, she came to Bangalore
and lodged a written complaint at Ashok Nagar Police Station
where it was registered on 10 June 1992 simply as a woman
missing complaint bearing Cr.No.417 /1992.
G 10. The search for the 'missing' woman started in a rather
lukewarm way but the appellant thought that the time had come
to start covering his flanks. He went to the court seeking antici-
patory bail. In the bail petition he declared his total innocence
and stated that perennial litigation with close _relations drove
H Shakereh to acute depression and in that state, while he was
... .._ SWAMY SHRADDANANDA@ MURALI MANOHAR MISHRA 107
v. STATE OF KARNATAKA [AFTAB ALAM,J.]

away from Bangalore, she left the house in a fit of anger without A
leaving any signs as to where she was headed. He was able to
obtain anticipatory bail, initially on certain condition that was
later on greatly relaxed.
11. The investigation by Ashok Nagar police station did
-...I
B
not yield any results but the persistence of Sabah paid off. In
March 1994, the Central Crime Branch (C.C.B.), Bangalore took
over the investigation of the complaint about the 'missing'
Shakereh. The case came under the charge of C. Veeraiah,
CPI, CCB (PW 37) who, suspecting the role of the appellant in
the disappearance of Shakereh, subjected him to close inter-
c
rogation. Under intense interrogation the appellant broke down
and owned up to having killed Shakereh. He narrated in detail
the manner of her killing and disposing of her body. He stated
that he put the body of Shakereh inside a large wooden box
(that he had earlier got made for the purpose) and got the box D
.. dropped into a pit (that he had got specially dug up) in the
grounds of 81 Richmond Road just outside their common bed-
room. He then got the pit filled up by earth and the ground-sur-
face cemented and covered up with stone slabs. He volunteered
to take the Investigating Officer (10) to the place and identify the E
exact spot where Shakereh lay buried inside the wooden box.
The appellant made the following statement before the 10 on
28 March 1994.
"If I am taken I will show the place where the wooden box
was prepared and the person who prepared it, the persons
F
who transported the box and the people who helped in
digging out the pit and the crow bar, spade, pan used for
digging pit, the cement bags and the spot where Shakereh
is buried and I exhume the dead body of the deceased
and show you. The statement what all I had earlier given G
to Ashok Nagar police was a false statement given
-' intentionally just to escape myself."

The 10 then obtained an exhumation order from the Mag-
istrate and after completing the other legal formalities, on March
H
108 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2008] 11 S.C.R.

A 30, 1994 brought the appellant to 81 Richmond Road along
with the exhumation team. They were taken by the appellant to
the rear of the house passing through the dinning hall and the
kitchen. The place was open to the sky but was enclosed on all
the four sides by high walls; the floor was made of kadapa slabs
B cemented at the joints. The place had no other access apart
from. the entry, through the kitchen. There the appellant identi-
fied t~e exact spot where the wooden box, with the body of
Shakereh inside it, lay buried and marked it with a piece of
chalk. The exhumation process started at 10.30 a.m. and the
c whole process was video graphed (as per M018).
12. As pointed out by the appellant, first the stone slabs
were removed and the cemented portion below the slabs was
broken up. Then the ground below was dug up and sure enough
a large-wooden box was found lying deep under. The box had
D inside it, on top, a foam mattress, a pillow and a bed-sheet.
Under the mattress was a skeleton with a sleeping gown around ,1.

it. The bones had all become disjointed. The skeleton and the
long hair tufts lying around the skull were taken out and the fo-
rensic experts rearranged the bones and also fixed the skull
E and the mandibles. There was no doubt that it was a human
skeleton. Mrs. Gauhar Taj Namaze identified a red stone ring
and two black rings found in the wooden box (that must have
slipped down the fingers after the flesh decayed away) as be-
longing to her daughter Shakereh. The sleeping gown that was
F around the skeleton was identified by the maid as belonging to
her mistress Shakereh. }<.

13. The post mortem examination was held on the same
day from 4.45 to about 6 p.m.

G 14. The skull along with an undisputed photograph of
Shakereh was sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory for
matching and identification by Photo Superimposition method.
/
The skeletal remains were subjected to D.N.A. fingerprinting.
.....
Both the tests gave the same result and left no room for doubt
that the skeleton was of Shakereh.
H
SWAMY SHRADDANANDA@ MURALI MANOHAR MISHRA 109
v. STATE OF KARNATAKA [AFTAB ALAM,J.]

15. On 31 March, 1994the10 once again took the appel- A
lant to 81 Richmond Road. This time the appellant took the 10
to the bedroom and showed the window that opened on the
enclosed space from where the skeleton of the deceased was
recovered on the previous day. He also explained that he had
got the lower part of the room's wall broken down to make a 8
J.. clearing through which the wooden box containing Shakereh's
body was pushed out of the room and into the pit. He also pro-
duced before the 10 pills of eight different kinds and the cheque
books of different bank accounts. ,
16. The other aspect of the case is equally significant in
c
that it provides the motive for the murder. It came to light during
investigation that after Shakereh disappeared (or, in retrospect,
was killed by the appellant) he went about selling off her prop-
erties as fast as possible. On 30 and 31 March, 1992, in two
days, the appellant sold 34 plots carved out of Shakereh's prop- D
erties to various people under registered sale-deeds using the
General Power of Attorney executed by her in his favour. The
joint bank accounts were simply used to deposit large sums
being the sale proceeds of the lands sold by him and to with-
draw the amounts as soon as those were credited to the ac- E
count. Needless to say that from May 1991, it was the appellant
alone who operated the joint bank accounts. He also literally
cleaned out the bank lockers that Shakereh had taken in their
joint names.
F
17. In all the meetings of the S.S. Housing Company, he
~ represented the presence of Shakereh and signed the proceed-
ings for himself and for her as holder of her General Power of
Attorney. The proceedings of the meetings were regularly sent
to their Chartered Accountant.
G
18. The appellant also gave regular replies to the queries
of the Income Tax authorities, one of which, of the year 1993
contains his signature and the signature of Shakereh which is
apparently forged.
19. In light of the large amount of evidences unearthed H

-1
..J
110 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2008] 11 S.C.R.

A against the appellant he was charged with the commission of
murder of his wife Shakereh. As is evident, the case against
the appellant was completely based on circumstantial evide~ce.
But the prosecution proved its case to the hilt by examining 39
witnesses and producing before the court a large number of
B exhibits, both material (MOs. 1 to 33) and documentary (P1 to
P267).. ~-

20. These are, in brief, the facts of the case. On these
facts, Mr. Sanjay Hegde, learned counsel for the State of
Karnataka, supported the view taken by Katju J. (as indeed by
c the High Court and the trial court) and submitted that the appel-
lant deserved nothing less than death. In order to bring out the
full horror of the crime Mr. Hegde reconstructed it before the
court. He said that after five years of marriage Shakereh's in-
fatuation for the appellant had worn thin. She could see through
D his fraud and see him for what he was. a lowly charlatan. The
appellant could sense that his game was up but he was not
willing to let go all the wealth and the lavish life style that he had
gotten used to. He decided to kill Shakereh and take over all
her wealth directly. In furtherance of his aim he conceived a ter-
E rible plan and executed it to perfection. He got a large pit dug
up at a 'safe' place just outside their bed room. The person who
was to lie into it was told that it was intended for the construe-
tion of a soak- pit for the toilet. He got the bottom of one of the
walls of the bedroom knocked off making a clearing to push the
F wooden box through; God only knows saying what to the per-
so_n who was to pass through it. He got a large wooden box ,.__ .,
(7x2x2 feet) made and brought to 81 Richmond Road where it
was kept in the guest house; mercifully out of sight of the per-
son for whom it was meant. Having thus . completed all . his prepa-

G rations he administered a very heavy dose of sleeping drugs to
her on 28 May, 1991 when the servant couple, on receiving in- .•-.
formation in the morning regarding a death in their family in a
village in Andhra Pradesh asked permission for leave and some >-
money in advance. However, before giving them the money
asked for and letting them go, the appellant got the large wooden
H
SWAMY SHRADDANANDA@ MURALI MANOHAR MISHRA 111
>- v. STATE OF KARNATAKA [AFTAB ALAM,J.]
box brought from the guest house to the bedroom by Raju (with A
the help of three or four other persons called for the purpose)
where, according to Raju, he saw Shakereh (for the last time)
lying on the bed, deep in sleep. After the servants had gone
away and the field was clear the appellant transferred Shakereh
along with the mattress, the pillow and the bed sheet from the B
""' bed to the box, in all probability while she was still alive. He then
shut the lid of the box and pushed it through the opening made
in the wall into the pit, dug just outside the room, got the pit filled
up with earth and the surface cemented and covered with stone
slabs. c
21. What the appellant did after committing murder of
Shakereh was, according to Mr. Hegde even more shocking.
He continued to live, like a ghoul, in the same house and in the
sam!3 room and started a massive game of deception. To Sabah,
who desperately wanted to meet her mother or at least to talk to D
~ her, he constantly fed lies and represented to the world at large
that Shakereh was alive and well but was simply avokling any
social contacts. Behind the fa9ade of deception he went on
selling Shakereh's properties as quickly as possible to convert
those into cash for easy appropriation. In conclusion Mr. Hegde E
submitted that it was truly a murder most foul and Katju J. was
perfectly right in holding that this case came under the first, sec-
ond and the fifth of the five categories, held by this Court as
calling for the death sentence, in Machhi Singh & Ors. vs. State
of Punjab, (1983) 3 SCC 470. F
-"'!
22. In order to properly appreciate the decision in Machhi
Singh it would be necessary to first go to its precursor, the Con-
stitution Bench decision in Bachan Singh vs. State of Punjab,
AIR 1980 SC 898 and to an earlier Constitution Bench deci-
sion in Jagmohan Singh vs. State of U.P, AIR 1973 SC 947, G
that is the precursor of Bacl)an Singh. The decisions in ·
Jagmohan Singh and Bachan .Singh deal with the recurrent
debate on abolition of death penalty and are primarily concerned
with the question of legitimacy of the death sentence. Jagmohan
relates to the period when the requirement for the court to state H
.
112 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2008] .11 S.C.R.
-(
A reasons for not giving death sentence but giving the alternate
sentence of life imprisonment in a capital offence was done . I
away with by deletion of Section 367(5) in the Code of Criminal ~
Procedure, 1898 and the requirement to state reasons for giv:- II
ing de_ath sentence and not the alternate of life imprisonment
~
B under. Section 354(3) of . the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 .-
was yet to be introduced. Bachan. Singh ·relates to the period >-
after the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 carrie into force
tnat gives to the accused the; right of pre-sentence hearing un-
der Section 235(2) and unqer Section 354(3) casts. an obliga·-
c, ' fi6'n ·on the court to state the 'special reasons'.for awarding the
'· sentence of death and not its alternate, the imprisonmenf for
life o.r imprisonrnent for a term of years. On both occasions the
;.-
c.purt upheld the Constitutional validity of death .sentence for ;-
murder and the-other .Qapital offences in . . the .Penal Code.
. ,

D 23. :We are· n~t concerned tie re with the issue of the ·con-
stitutionality of death sentence that stands· conclusively settled
~-
by two Constitution Bench·deCisions·. What is of importance for
ourpre~ent purpose is tlla't both the Constitution Benches firmly
declined ,to be drawn into makin'g any" standardisation ·o"r
E categorisation of cases for awarding death penaity? It was
,.
strongly urged before the Court that in order to save the sen-
tence of death from the vice of arbitrariness it was imperative
~
for the Court to lay down guide lines, to mark and identify the
...
'
~
types of murder that would attracfthe punishment of death, leav-
F ing aside the other kinds of murder for the lesser option of the
sentence of imprisonment for life. In Jagmohan the Court turned
;....
down the submission-observing (in paragraph 25 of. the judg-
ment) as follows:
''In India this onerous duty is cast upon Judges and for
G more than a century the J_udges are carrying out this duty
under the Indian Penal' Code. ·The impossibility of laying ....
down standards is at the very core of the criminal law as
administered in India which invests the Judges with a very f-
't
wide discretion in the matter of fixing the degree of
H punishme~t.' That discretion in the matter of ~enteilce is \
...:....
~
SWAMY SHRADDANANDA@ MURALI MANOHAR MISHRA 113

-' )-
v. STATE OF KARNATAKA [AFTAB ALAM,J.]

as already pointed out, liable to be corrected by superior A
courts. Laying down of standards to the limited extent
possible as was done in the Model Judicial Code would
not serve the purpose. The exercise of judicial discretion
on well recognized principles is in the final analysis the
safest possible safeguards for the accused." B
(Emphasis added)
Barely seven years later, the same argument was ad-
vanced with even greater force before another Constitution
I'
(
Bench in Bachan Singh vs. State of Punjab (supra). ·It was con- c
tended that under Section 354(3) the requirement of giving 'spe-
cial reasons' for awarding death sentence was very loose and
it left the doors open for imposition of death penalty in an arbi-
trary and whimsical manner. It was further contended that for
the sake of saving the Constitutional validity of the provision the D
Court must step in to clearly define its scope by unmistakably
j
marking the types of grave murders and other capital offences
that would attract death penalty rather than the alternate punish-
ment of imprisonment for life.
'I
... 24. As on the earlier occasion, in Bachan Singh too the E
Court rejected the submission. The Court did not accept the
contention that asking the Court to state special reasons for
awarding death sentence amounted to leaving the Court to do
something that was essentially a legislative function. The Court
held that the exercise of judicial discretion on well established F
~ principles and on the facts of each case was not the same as to
legislate. On the contrary, the Court observed, any attempt to
standardise or to identify the types of cases for the purpose of
death sentence would amount to taking up the legislative func-
tion. The Court said that a 'standardization or sentencing dis- G
cretion is a policy matter which belongs to the sphere of legis-
lation' and 'the Court would not by overleaping its bounds rush
~ to do what Parliament, in its wisdom, warily did not do.'

25. The Court also rejected the other submission that un-
less it precisely defined the scope of Section 354(3) and clearly H
114 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2008] 11 S.C.R.
"'
..(

A marked the types of grave murders and capital offences there
would always be the chance of imposition of death penalty in
an arbitrary and whimsical manner. In paragraph 168 of the judg-
ment the Court observed as follows:
"Now, remains the question whether th is Court can lay down
B
standards or norms restricting the area of the imposition of ~ f-

death penalty to a narrow category of murders."
It discussed the issue at length from paragraphs 169 to 195
and firmly refused to do any categorisation or standardisation of
c cases for the purpose of death sentence. In the lengthy discus-
sion on the issue, the Court gave over half a doze~ different rea- ".
sons against the argument urging for standardisation and
.
categorisation of cases;· it also cited the American experience to
show the futility of any such undertaking. A perusal of that part of \
D the judgment shows that a very strong plea was made before the ~
Court for standardisation and categorisation of cases for the
-~
purpose of 'death sentence. Nonetheless the Court remained
resolute in its refusal to undertake the exercise. In this regard the
- court agreed with the view earlier taken in Jagmohan and ob-
E served that it was not possible to make an exhaustive enumera-
tion of aggravating or mitigating circumstances which should be ,_
taken into consideration when sentencing an offender. It extracted
the passage from Jagmohan that quoted with approval the ob-
servation -from an American decision in McGautha vs. Califor-
nia, (1971) 402 US ·183
F
"The infinite variety of cases and facets to each case would J,...
f-
make general_ standards either meaningless 'boiler plate' or
a statement of the obvious that no Jury/Judge would need."
It also reiterated the observation in Jagmohan that such
G "standardisation" is well-nigh impossible. I

26: Arguing against standardisation of cases for the pur-
pose of death sentence the Court observed that even within a
single category offence there are infinite, unpredictable and
,;.....
.-
H unforeseeable variations. No two cases are exactly identical.
SWAMY SHRADDANANDA@ MURALI MANOHAR MISHRA 115
v. STATE OF KARNATAKA [AFTAB ALAM,J.]

There are countless permutations and combinations which A
are beyond the anticipatory capacity of the human calculus.
The Court further observed that standardisation of the sentenc-
ing process tends to sacrifice justice at the altar of blind uni-
formity
8
27. It is significant to note that the Court was extremely
wary of dealing with even the question of indicating the broad
criteria which should guide the Courts in sentencing a convict
of murder. It reminded itself of the observation of Stewart, J. in
Greg vs. Georgia, 'while we have an obligation to ensure that C
the constitutional bounds are not overreached, we may not act
as judges as we might as legislatures'. Having thus cautioned
itself, though the Court recorded the suggestions of Dr.Chitale,
one of the counsels appearing in the case, as regards the 'ag:..
gravating circumstances' and the 'mitigating circumstances', it
was careful not to commit itself to Dr. Chitale's categories. In D
paragraph 200 the judgment recorded the 'aggravating circum-
stances' suggested by Dr.Chitale, but in paragraph 201 it ob-
served as follows:
"Stated broadly, there can be no objection to the E
acceptance of these indicators but as we have indicated
already, we would prefer not to fetter judicial discretion by
attempting to make an exhaustive enumeration one way
or the other."
Similarly, in paragraph 204 the judgment recorded the F
'mitigating circumstances' as suggested by Dr.Chitale. In para-
graph 205, however, it observed as follows:
"We will do no more than to say that these are undoubtedly
relevant circumstances and must be given great weight
in the determination of sentence. Some of these factors G
like extreme youth can instead be of compelling
importance."
In the end, the Court following the decision in Jagmohan
left the sentencing process exactly as it came from the legisla- H
116 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2008] 11 S.C.R.
....
A tive, flexible and responsive to each case on its merits, subject
to the discretion of the Court and in case of any error in exer-
cise of the discretion subject further to correction by the Supe-
rior Court(s). The Court observed:
"In Jagmohan, this Court had held that this sentencing
B
discretion is to be exercised judicially on well-recognised
principles, after balancing all the aggravating and
mitigating circumstances of the crime. By "well-recognised
principles" the Court obviously meant the principles
crystallized by judicial decisions illustrating as to what were
c regarded as aggravating or mitigating circumstances in
th9se cases. The legislative changes since Jagmohan -
as we have discussed already - do not have the effect of
abrogating or nullifying those principles. The only effect is
that the application of those principles is now to be guided
D by the paramount beacons of legislative policy discernible
from Sections 354(3) and 235(2), namely: (1) The extreme J.
penalty can be inflicted only in gravest cases of extreme
culpability; (2) In making choice of the sentence, in addition
to the circumstances of the offence, due regard must be
E paid to ·the circumstances of the offender also."
Earlier in the judgment while reaffirming Jagmohan, sub-
ject of course to certain adjustments in view of the legislative ,l
changes (section 354(3) the Court observed:

F "The expression "special reasons" in the context of this
provision, obviously means "exceptional reasons"
founded on the exceptionally grave circumstances of
the particular case relating to the crime as Well as the
criminal. Thus, the legislative policy now writ large and
G clear on the face of Section 354(3) is that on conviction for
murder and other capital offences punishable in the
alternative with death under the Penal Code, the extreme
penalty should be imposed only in extreme cases." .>---

(Emphasis added)
H
SWAMY SHRADDANANDA@ MURALI MANOHAR MISHRA 117
_._ v. STATE OF KARNATAKA [AFTAB ALAM,J.]

In conclusion the Constitution Bench decision in Bachan A
. Singh sai9:
'·i~ " ......... It is, therefore, imperative to voice the concern
that courts, aided by the broad illustrative guidelines
indicated by us, will discharge the onerous function with
B
J evermore scrupulous care and humane concern, directed
along the highroad of.legislative policy outlined in Section
354(3) viz. that for persons convicted of murder, life
imprisonment is the rule and death sentence an
exception. A real and abiding concern for the dignity of
human life postulates resistance to taking a life through
c
law's instrumentality. That ought not to be done save in
the rarest of rare cases when the alternative option is
unquestionably foreclosed."
(Emphasis added) D
.i The Bachan Singh principle of 'rarest of rare cases' came
up for consideration and elaboration in the case of Mach.hi
Singh. It was a case of extraordinary brutality. On account of a
family feuc;j Machhi Singh the main accused in the case, along
with eleven accomplices, in course of a single night, conducted. E
raids on a number of villages killing seventeen people, men,
women and childrei:i for no reason other than they were related
to one Amar Singh and his sister Piyaro Bai. The death sen-
tence awarded to Machhi Singh and two other accused by the
Trial Court and affirmed by the High Court was also confirmed F
.... by this Court. In Machhi Singh the Court put itself in the posi-
. ' .
tion of the 'Community' and observed that though the 'Commu-·
nity' revered and protected life because 'the very humanistic
edifice is constructed on the foundation of reverence for life prin-
ciple' it may yet withdraw the protection and demand death G
penalty,
"It may do so 'in r9_rest of rare cases' when its collective
cons'cience is so shocked that it will expect the holders of
the judicial power centre to inflict death penalty irrespective
of their personal opinion as regards desirability or H
118 SUPREME COURT REPORTS (2008] 11 S.C.R.

A otherwise of retaining death penalty. The community may
entertain such a sentiment when the crime is viewed from
the platform of the motive for, or the manner of commission
of the crime, or the anti-social or abhorrent nature of the
crime, such as for instance :
B
I. Manner of commission of murder
When the murder is committed in an extremely brutal,
grotesque, diabolical, revolting or dastard1y manner so as
to arouse intense and extreme indignation of the
C community. For instanc~.
(i) when the house of the victim is set aflame with the
end in view to roast him alive in the house.
(ii) when the victim is subjected to inhuman acts of torture
o or cruelty in order to bring about his.or her death.
(iii) when the body of the victim is cut into pieces or his
body is dismembered in a fiendish manner.
II. Motive for commission of murder
E When the murder.is committed for a motive which evinces
" depravity and meanness. For instance when (a) a hired
total
assass.in commits murder for the sake of money or reward (b)
a cold-blooded murder is committed with a deliberate design
in order to inherit property or to gain control over property of a
F ward or a person under the control of the murderer or vis-a-vis
whom the murderer is in a dominating position or in a position
of trust, or (c) a murder is committed in the course for betrayal ..
of the motherland.
Ill. Anti-social or socially abhorrent nature of the crime .
G
(a) When murder of a member of a Scheduled Caste or
minority community etc., is committed not for personal
reasons but in- circumstances which arouse social
wrath. For inst~nce when such a crime is committed
H in order to terrorize such persons and frighten them
SWAMY SHRADDANANDA@ MURALI MANOHAR MISHRA 119
v. STATE OF KARNATAKA [AFTAB ALAM,J.]

into fleeing from a place or in order to deprive them A
of, or make them surrender, lands or benefits
conferred on them with a view to reverse past
injustices and in order to restore the. social balance.
(b) In cases of 'bride burning' and what are known as
8
'dowry deaths' or when murder is committed in order
to remarry for the sake of extracting dowry once again
or to marry another woman on account of infatuation.
IV. Magnitude of crime
When the crime is enormous in proportion. For instance C
when multiple murders say of all or almost all the members
of a family or a large number of persons of a particular
caste, community, or locality, are committed.
V. Personality of victim of murder D
When the victim of murder is (a) an innocent child who
could not have or has not provided even an excuse, much
less a provocation, for murder (b) a helpless woman or a
person rendered helpless by old age or infirmity (c) when
the victim is a person vis-a-vis whom the murderer is in a E
position of domination or trust (d) when the victim is a
public figure generally loved and respected by the
community for the services rendered by him and the murder
is committed for political or similar reasons other than
personal reasons." F
In Machhi Singh the Court held that for practical applica-
tion the rarest of rare cases principle must be read and under-
stood in the background of the five categories of murder cases
enumerated in it. Thus the standardisation and classification of
cases that the two earlier Constitution Benches had resolute~y G
refrained from doing finally came to be done in Machhi Singh.
28. In Machhi Singh the Court crafted the categories of
murder in which 'the Community' should demand death sen-
tence for the offender with great care and thoughtfulness. But H
1id 'S,UPREME COURT REPORTS [2008] 11 S.C.R.

A the"judtirnent'in)Machhi Singh was rendered on 20 July, 1983,
rieaily twenty five years ago, that is to ·say a full generation ear-
lier: A careful reading of the Mach hi Singh categories will make
ittlearthatthe'classification was made looking at murder mainly
a_s..an aGtof maladjusted individual criminal(s). In 1.983 the coun-
• . ~ ' ~ 1- ' • , ~ • , • • .
" .
• ~-t;

B try wa,$:.relativeJy free from organised aryq professional crime. ....
· Abd,qction for Ransom and Gang Rape and murders commit-
tedi~ ccw~se.pftho_se offences were. yepo become a menace
for the society compelling the Legislature to create special slots
for those offences in the Penal Gode. At· the time of Mach hi
c Singh, Delhi had not witnessed the. infamous Sikh carnage.
1.~~r~: W,as.[lp at~ac,k. 9n the country's P~rliament. There;,were
no ,bombs planted by terrorists killing completely innocent
people, ·m-en, women pnd children in dozens with sickening fre-
quency. There were .n.o private armies. There were no. mafia
o~ cornering huge government contracts purely by muscle power.
T~erei were no reports of killings of social activists and 'whistle
blo~ers'. There were no reports of cµstodial deaths and rape
and fa~e.encounters by police or even by armed forces. These
developments would unquestionably find a more pronounced
E' reflection in ~ny classification if one were to be made to day.
Re.lying,up_on the observations in Bachan Singh, theref~re, we
respectfully wish to say that even though the categories framed
in M,9chhi Singh provide yery useful guidelines, ,nonetheless
those qmnot be taken as inflexible, absolute or immutable. Fur-
ther, 'even' in those categories, ·there would be scope for flexibil-
F ity as observed in Bachan Singh itself.
i•."; ... '
~ . ' '.
. 29. The·,rnatter can be looked at from another angle. In.
89cflan Singh it was held that the expression "special reasons"
irii t~e context ofthe provision of Section 354(3) obvipusly means
G "exceptional reasgns~· founded on the exceptionally grave cir-
cumstances 'of the particular case relating to th.e crime as well
as the criminal. It was further said that on conviction for murder
and: other capital offences punishable in the alternative with
death ;under tl'le Penal Code, the extreme penalty should be
H imposed only iii extreme cases. In conclusion it was' said that
SWAMY SHRADDANANDA@ MURALI MANOHAR MISHRA 121
,,._ v. STATE OF KARNATAKA [AFTAB ALAM,J.]

the death penalty ought not to be imposed save in the rarest of A
rare cases when the alternative option is unquestionably fore-
closed. Now, all these expressions "special reasons", "excep-
tional reasons", "founded on the exceptional grave circum.:
stances", "extreme cases" and "the rarest of the rare cases"
unquestionably indicate a relative category based on compari- B
~
son with other cases of murder. Machhi Singh for the purpose
of practical application sought to translate this relative category
into absolute terms by framing the five categories. (In doing so,
it is held by some, Machhi Singh considerably enlarged the
scope for imposing death penalty that was greatly restricted by c
Bachan Singh!).
30. But the relative category may also be viewed from the
numerical angle, that is to say, by comparing the case before
the Court with other cases of murder of the same or similar
kind, or even of a graver nature and then to see what punish- D
~- ment, if any was awarded to the culprits in those other cases.
What we mean to say is this, if in similar cases or in cases of
murder of a far more revolting nature the culprits escaped the
death sentence or in some cases were even able to escape
the criminal justice system altogether it would be highly unrea- E
sonable and unjust to pick on the condemned person and con-
firm the death penalty awarded to him/her by the courts below
simply because he/she happens to be before the Court. But to
look at a case in this perspective this Court has hardly any field;
of comparison. The court is in a position to judge 'the rarest of F
.-i rare cases' or an 'exceptional case' or an 'extreme case' only
among those cases that come to it with the sentence of death
awarded by the trial court and confirmed by the High Court. All
those cases that may qualify as the rarest of rare cases and
which may warrant death sentence but in which death penalty is G
actually not given due to an error of judgment by the trial court or
the High Court automatically fall out of the field of comparison.
~
More important are the cases of murder of the worst kind, and
their number is by no means small, in which the culprits, though
identifiable, manage to escape any punishment or are let off
H
SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2008] 11 S.C.R.

A very lightly. Those cases never come up for comparison with
the cases this Court might be dealing with for confirmation of
death sentence. To say this is because our Criminal justice Sys-
tem, .of which the court is only a part, does not work with a hun-
dred percent efficiency or anywhere near it, is not to say some-
B thing remarkably new or original. But the point is, this Court,
being the highest court of the Land, presiding over a Criminal
Just\ce Sys.tern that allows culprits of the most dangerous and
revolting kinds of murders to slip away should be extremely wary
in dealing with death sentence and should resort to it, in the
c wqrds of Bachan Singh, only when the other alternative is un-
questionably foreclosed. We are not unconscious of the simple
logic that in case five crimes go undetected and unpunished
that is no reason not to apply the law to culprits committing the
other five crimes. But this logic does not seem to hold good in
P~ case of death penalty. On this logic a convict of murder may be
punished with imprisonment for as long as you please; But death
penalty is something entirely different. No one can undo an ex"'
ecuted death sentence.
31. That is not the end of the matter. Coupled with
E the deficiency of the Criminal Justice System is the lack of con-
sistency in the sentencing process even by this Court. It is noted
above that Bachan Singh laid down the principle of the rarest
of rare cases. Mach hi Singh, for practical application
crystallise_d the principle into five definite categories of cases
F of murder and in doing so also considerably enlarged the scope
for imposing death penalty. But the unfortunate reality is that in
later decisions neither the rarest of rare cases principle nor the
Machhi Singh categories were followed uniformly and consis-
tently. In Aloke Nath Dutta vs. State of West Bengal, 2006 (13)
G SCALE 467, Sinha J. gave some very good illustr_ations from a
number of recent decisions in which on similar facts this Court
took contrary views on giving death penalty to the convict (see
paragraphs 154 to 182, pp.504-510 SCALE). He finally ob-
served that 'courts in the matter of sentencing act differently
H although the fact situation may appear to be somewhat similar'
SWAMY SHRADDANANDA@ MURALI MANOHAR MISHRA 123
~
v. STATE OF KARNATAKA [AFTAB ALAM,J.]

and further 'it is evident that different benches had taken differ- A
ent view in the matter'. Katju J. in his order passed in this ap-
peal said that he did not agree with the decision in Aloke Nath
Dutt in that it held that death sentence was not to be awarded in
a case of circumstantial evidence. Katju J. may be right that
there can not be an absolute rule excluding death sentence in B
1 all cases of circumstantial evidence (though in Aloke Nath Dutta
it is said 'normally' and not as an absolute rule). But there is ho
I'
denying the illustrations cited by Sinha J. which are a matter of
fact.
32. The same point is made in far greater detail in a re-
c
port called, "Lethal Lottery, The Death Penalty in India" com-
piled jointly by Amnesty International India and Peoples Union

-
For Civil Liberties, Tamil Nadu & Puducherry. The report is based
'·
on the study of Supreme Cour:t judgments in death penalty cases
from 1950 to 2006. One of the main points made in the report D
>-- (see chapter 2 to 4) is about the Court's lack of uniformity and
consistency in awarding death sentence.
33. The truth of the matter is that the question of death
penalty is not free from the subjective element and the confir- E
mation of death sentence or its commutation by this Court de-
pends a good deal on the personal predilection of the judges
constituting the bench.
34. The inability of the Criminal Justice System to deal
with all major crimes equally effectively and the want of unifor- F
~ mity in the sentencing process by the Court .lead to a marked
imbalance in the end results. On the one hand there appears a
small band of cases in which the murder convict is sent to the
gallows on confirmation of his death penalty by this Court and
on the other hand there is a much wider area of cases in which G
the offender committing murder of a similar or a far more revolt-
ing kind is spared his life due to lack of consistency by the Court
_.l
in giving punishments or worse the offender is allowed to slip
away unpunished on account of the deficiencies in the Criminal
Justice System. Thus the overall larger picture gets asymmet- H
124 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2008] 11 S. C.R.
_...
A. ric and lop-sided and presents a poor reflection of the system
of criminal administration of justice. This situation is matter of
concern. for this Court and needs to be remedied.
35. These are some of the larger issues that make us feel
reluctant in confirming the death sentence of the appellant.
B. ' .,.._
36. Coming now to the facts of the case it is undeniable
that the appellant killed Shakereh in a planned and cold blooded
manner but at l~ast this much can be said in his favour that he
devised the plan so that the victim could not know till the end
c and even for a moment that she was betrayed by the one she
trusted most. Further though the way of killing appears quite
ghastly it may be said that it did not cause any mental or physi-
cal pain to the victim. Thirdly, as noted by Sinha J. the appellant
confessed his guilt at least partially before the High Court. ~·
~

D 37. We must not be understood to mean that the crime '
committed by the appellant was not very grave or the motive -4
behind the ·crime was not highly depraved. Nevertheless, in view
of.theabove discussion we feel hesitant in endorsing the death
penaUy awarded to him by the trial court and confirmed by the
E High Court. The absolute irrevocability of the death penalty ren-
ders it completely incompatible to the slightest hesitation on
the part of the court. The hangman's noose is thus taken off the
appellant's neck.
38. But this leads to a more important question about the .__
F
punishment commensurate to the appellant's crime. The sen-
te.nce of imprisonment for a term of 14 years, that·goes under ~

the euphemism of life imprisonment is equally, if not more, un--
acceptable. As a matter of fact, Mr. Hegde informed us thatthe
appeflant was taken in custody on 28 March, 1994 and submit-
G ted that by virtue of the provisions relating to remission, the sen-
tenc~ of life imprisonment, without any qualification or further
direction would, in all likelihood, lead to his release from jail in
~.
the first quarter of 2009 since he has already completed more
than 14 years of incarceration. This eventuality is simply not
H acceptable to this Court. What then is the answer? The answer
SWAMY SHRADDANANDA@ MURALI MANOHAR MISHRA 12ti
)...
v. STATE OF KARNATAKA [AFTAB ALAM;J.]

lies in breaking this standardisation that, in practice, renders k
the sentence of life imprisonment equal to imprisonment for a
period of no more than 14 years; in making it clear that the sen-
tence of life imprisonment when awarded as a substitute for:
death penalty would be carried out strictly as directed, by the.
Court. This Court, therefore, must lay down a good and-sou,nd B_,
legal basis for putting the punishment of impri~onment for life,
awarded as substitute for death penalty, beyond any remission
and to be carried out as directed by the Court so that it may be
followed, in appropriate cases as a uniform policy not only by
this Court but also by the High Courts, being the superior Courts c
in their respective States. A suggestion to this effect was made
by this Court nearly thirty years ago in Dalbir Singh and others
vs. State of Punjab, (1979) 3 SCC 745. In paragraph 14 of the
judgment this Court held and observed as follows:
"14. The sentences of death in the prese.nt appeal are D
.... liable to be reduced to life imprisonment. We may add a .
footnote to the ruling in Rajendra Prasad case. Taking the
cue from the English legislation on abolition, we may
suggest that life imprisonment which strictly means
imprisonment for the whole of the men's life but in practice E
amounts to incarceration for a period between 10 and 14
years may, at the option of the convicting court, be subject
to the condition that the sentence of imprisonment shall
last as long as life lasts, where there are exceptional
indications of murderous recidivism and the community F
cannot run the risk of the convict being at large. This
takes care of judicial apprehensions that unless physically
liquidated the culprit may at some remote time repeat
murder."
[Emphasis added] G

We think that it is time that the course suggested in Da/bir
-4-
Singh should receive a formal recognition by the Court.

39. As a matter of fact there are sufficient precedents for
the Court to take such a course. In a number of cases this court H
126 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2008] 11 S.C.R.

A '"'·
has substituted death penalty by life imprisonment or in some
cases for a term of twenty years with the further direction that
the convict would not be released for the rest of his life or until
the twenty year term was actually served out. In this case too
Sinha J. passed exactly the same order. After declining to con-
B firrtl°the death sentence given to the appellant he proceeded to
give the following direction.
,.
"However, while saying so, we (sic) direct that in a case·
of this nature 'life sentence' must be meant to be 'life
sentence'. Such a direction can be given, as would appear
c from some precedents."
Sinha J. then mentioned the following five cases in which
this Court had passed similar orders.
40~ In Subhash Chander vs. Krishan La & others, (2001)
D 4 SCC 458, five- accused persons, including Krishan Lal were
put on trial for committing multiple murders. The trial court ac- · .J
quitted one of the accused but convicted the !'.est of them and
sentenced each of them to death. In the death reference/ap-
peals preferred by the convicted accused, the High Court con-
E firmed the conviction of ali the four accused but commuted their
death sentence to life imprisonment. One Subhash Chander
(PW-2) came to this Court in appeal. On a consideration of the
material facts this Court felt that the High Court was not justified
in commuting the sentence of death of at least one accused,
F Krishan Lal. But then the counsel appearing on his behalf im-
plored that instead of death penalty this Court might o~der for
imprisonment of Krishan Lal for the remaining period of his life.
This Court took note of the counsel's submission as follows:
"Faced with the situation Mr. U. R. Lalit, Senior Counsel
G appearing for the aforesaid respondents submitted that )-

instead of depriving Krishan Lal (A-1) of his life, the Court
can pass appropriate order to deprive the aforesaid +.
accused person of his liberty throughout his life. Upon
.instructions, the learned Senior Counsel submitted that
H the said Krishan Lal, if sentenced ·to life imprisonment
--( SWAMY SHRADDANANDA@ MURALI MANOHAR MISHRA 127
~ v. STATE OF KARNATAKA [AFTAB ALAM,J.]

would never claim his premature release or commutation A
of his sentence on any ground. We record such a
sub.mission made on behalf of the said accused, upon
instructions."
(Emphasis added)
B
~
\ This Court accepted the plea made by the counsel and
passed the following order:
"However, in the peculiar circumstances of the case,
· apprehending imminent danger to the life of Subhash
Chander and his family in future, taking on record the
c
statement made on behalf of Krishan Lal (A-1), we are
inclined to hold that for him the imprisonment for life shall
be the imprisonment in prison for the rest of his life. He
shall not be· entitled to any commutation or premature
release under Section 401 of the Code of Criminal D
.... Procedure, Prisoners Act, Jail Manual or any other statute
and the rules made for the purposes of grant of

.. commutation and remissions." .
(Emphasis added) E
In Subhash Chander this court referred to an earlier judg-
ment in State of MP vs. Ratan Singh, (1976) 3 SCC 470, in
which it was held that a sentence of imprisonment for life means
a sentence for the entire life of the prisoner unless the appro-
priate Government chooses to exercise its discretion to remit F
i -I either the whole or a part of the sentence under Section 401 of
the Code of Criminal Procedure. The Court also referred to
the earlier decisions in Sohan Lal vs. Asha Ram, (1981) 1 SCC
106 (This is a mistake since Sohan Lal is a completely differ-
ent case; apparently the reference was to Maru Ram vs. Union G
of/ndia on page 107 of the same report), Bhagirath vs. Delhi
\
Administration, (1985) 2 SCC 580 and Zahid Hussein vs. State
~
of West Bengal, (2001) 3 SCC 750.
41 . In Shri Bhagwan vs. State of Rajasthan, (2001) 6 SCC
296, the appellant, who was 20 years old at the time of com- H
\.-
I

128 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2008) 11 S.C.R.
...(

A mission of the offence, had come to this Court, condemned to
death by the trial court and the High Court. According to pros-
ecution, he had killed five members of a family by mercilessly I
battering them to death. The manner of killing was brutal and
the circumstances of the crime exhibited crass ingratitude on
B the appellant's part. The motive was theft of gold ornaments \.-
and other articles belonging to the victim'farnily. In this case,·K.
G. Balakrishnan, J. (as the Hon'ble the Chief Justice was at that ~

time) whowrote the judgment for the Court commuted the death
sentence awarded to the appellant to imprisonment for life sub-
c jectto the direction that he would not be released from the prison
until he had served out at least 20 years of imprisonment in- J-r
eluding the period alre~dy
.
undergone by him. In this cas·e there
.
,,....
is also a very useful discussion with regard to the provisions of I

commutation and remission in the Code of Criminal Procedure
D and the prison rules to which we shall advert later on in this Ir'-
judgment. ~

42. In Prakash Dhawal Khairnar (Patil) vs. State of
F
i.-
Maharashtra, (2002) 2 SCC 35, the condemned appellant had I

committed the murder of his own brother, their mother and four ~-
E members of his brother's family because the deceased brother
was not partitioning the property which the appellant claimed to
be joint family property. In the totality of circumstances this Court
set aside the death sentence awarded to the appellant but di-
rected that for the murders committed by him, he would suffer I
F imprisonment for life ahd further that he would nofbe released J_'.

from prison until he had served out at least 20 years of irnpris- I-
onment including the period already undergone by him. For giv-
ing such a direction, the court referred to the decisions in Shri
Bhagwan (supra) and Dalbir Singh V The State of Punjab,
G (1979) 3 sec 745.
43. In Ram Ariup Singh & others V. State of Bihar, (2002) r
6 sec 686, there were a father and his two sons before ·this ,+..

court. They had killed the father's brother, the brother's wife, his
daughter and his son-in-law. On conviction for the murders the I-
I
H father was sentenced to life imorisonment but the t\N,.. ~ans were
1

SWAMY SHRADDANANDA@ MURALI MANOHAR MISHRA 129
v. STATE OF KARNATAKA [AFTAB ALAM,J.]

given the death penalty. This Court once again interfered and A
set aside the death sentence awarded by the trial court and
confirmed by the High Court fo the two sons and instead sen-
tenced them to suffer rigorous imprisonment for life with the
condition that they would not be released before completing an
actual term of 20 years including the period of imprisonment B
~
already undergone by them. Reference was made to the deci-
sions in Shri Bhagwan, Dalbir Singh and Prakash Dhawal
Khairnar (Patil) (supra).
44. The fifth decision mentioned by Sinha J. was in Mohd.
Munna vs. Union of India, (2005) 7 SCC 417. In this case it
c
was basically held that in the absence of an order of remission
formally passed by the appropriate government, there was no
provision in the Penal Code or in the Code of Criminal Proce-
dure under which a sentence of life imprisonment could be
treated as for a term of 14 years or 20 years and further that a D
~ convict undergoing imprisonment for life could not claim rem is-
sion as a matter of right.
45. To this list of five cases mentioned by Sinha J. one
could add one or two more.
E
46. In Jayawant Oattatraya Suryarao vs. State of
Maharashtra, (2001) 10 SCC 109, this Court had before it a
batch of five analogous cases. There were three appeals on
behalf of three of the accused convicted by the trial court; an-
other appeal by the State in regard to the accused who were F
acquitted by the trial court and a death reference in regard to
one of the appellants, Subhashsingh Shobhanathsingh Thakur
(A-6) who was given sentences of death on two counts, one
under the provisions of the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities
(Prevention) Act (TADA) and the other under section 120-B of G
the Penal Code. According to the prosecution case the appel-
lants, along with a number of other co-accused, armed with
highly sophisticated weapons had raided J.J.Hospital in
Mumbai where the victim, a member of another underworld
gang, was admitted for treatment. In the hospital they made in- H
SWAMY SHRADDANANDA@ MURALI MANOHAR MISHRA 131
v. STATE OF KARNATAKA [AFTAB ALAM,J.]
,I._
from Gopal Vinayak Godse vs. The State of Maharashtra, 1961 · A
(3) SCR 440 and coming down to Mohd. Munna vs. Union of
India (supra).
49. In course of hearing of the appeal before us strong
doubts were raised over the application of the second premise
B
for putting a sentence of imprisonment beyond remission. It was
j
contended that to say that a convict undergoing a sentence of
imprisonment had no right to claim remission was not the same
as the Court, while giving the punishment of imprisonment, sus-
pending the operation of the statutory provisions of remission
and restraining the appropriate government fro~ discharging
c
its statutory function.
50. In this connection . an interesting development. was
brought to our notice. We were informed that Sub.hashsingh
Shobhanathsingh Thakur whose death sentence was modi- D
tied by this Court to imprisonment for life - till rest of life by its
).- judgment dated 5 November, 2001 in J'ayawant Dattatraya
Suryarao vs. State of Maharashtra, (supra) has filed a writ peti-
tion under Article 32 of the Constitution before this Court (Writ Peti-
tion (Criminal) No. ·35 of 2008:· Subhashsingh Shobhanathsingh
E
Thakur vs. The State of Maharashtra) challenging, on substan-
tially the s~me grounds, the order of the Court, in so far as it
directed for the non application of the statutory provisions of
remission to his case.

51. Our attention was also invited to a decision of this Court F
in State (Government of NCT of Delhi) vs. Prem Raj, (2003) 7
SCC 121. In this case, Prem Raj, the accused respondent be-
fore the court was convicted by the trial court under Section 7
read with Section 13(1)( d) and 13(2) of the Prevention of Cor-
ruption Act and was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprison- G
ment for two years and a fine of Rs.500/- under Section 7. He
was additionally sentenced to undergo imprisonment for 3-1/2
-..i..
years and a fine of Rs.1, 000/- under Section 13(2) of the Act,
subject to the direction that the two sentences would run con-
currently. In appeal, on a plea made on the question of sen-
H
132 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2008] 11 S.C.R.

A tence, a learned Single Judge of the High Court enhanced the
amount of fine to Rs.15, 000/- in lieu of the sentences of impris-
onment and directed that on deposit of the amount of fine the
State government, being the 'appropriate government' would
formalize the matter by passing an appropriate order under
B Section 433(c) of the Code of Criminal Procedure. This Court,
on appeal by the State, held that the question of remission lay ~·
within the domain of the appropriate government and it was not
open to the High Court to give a direction of that kind. In the
case of Prem Raj the Court referred to two earlier decisions in
C Delhi Administration vs. Manohar Lal, (2002) 7 SCC 222 and
State of Punjab vs. Kesar Singh, (1996) 5 SCC 495 and in
paragraph 13 of the decision observed as. follows :
',
"An identical question regarding exercise of power in terms ,
;.
of Section 433 of the Code was considered in Delhi
D Admn. (now NCT of Delhi) vs. Manohar Lal. The Bench
speaking through one of us (Doraiswamy Raju,J.) was of
the view that exercise of power under Section 433 was an
executive discretion. The High Court in exercise of its
revisional jurisdiction had no power conferred on it to
E commute the sentence imposed where a minimum
sentence was provided for the offence. In State of Punjab
vs. Kesar Singh, this Court observed as follows [though it
was in the context of Section 433(b)]: (SCC pp.595-96,
para 3)"
F "The mandate of Section 433 Cr. P. C. enables the
Government in an appropriate case to commute the
sentence of a convict and to prematurely order his release
before expiry of the sentence as imposed by the
courts ..... That apart, even if the High Court could give
G such a direction, it could only direct consideration of the
case of premature release by the Government and could
not have ordered the premature release of the respondent
itself. The right to exercise the power under Section 433
Cr. P. C. vests in the Government and has to be exercised
H by the Government in accordance with the rules and
SWAMY SHRADDANANDA@ MURALI MANOHAR MISHRA 133
v. STATE OF KARNATAKA [AFTAB ALAM,J.]
>· established principles. The impugned order of the High A
Court cannot, therefore, be sustained and is hereby set.
aside."
Relying upon the aforesaid two decisions this Court set
aside the order of the court but left it open to the accused to
B
move the appropriate Government for such relief as may be
1 available in law. It was further clarified that it would be at the
sole discretion of the Government to exercise the power con-
ferred on it in accordance with law.
52. Before us it was submitted that just as the Court could c
not direct the appropriate government for granting remission to
a convicted prisoner, it was not open to the Court to direct the
appropriate government not to consider the case of a convict
for grant of remission in sentence. It was contended that giving
punishment for an offence was indeed a judicial function but D
once the judgment was pronounced and punishment awarded
).
the matter no longer remained in the hands of the Court. The
execution of the punishment passed into the hands of the ex-
ecutive and under the scheme of the statute the Court had no
control over the execution.
E
53. In our view, the submission is wholly misconceived and
untenable and the decision in the case of Prem Raj has no
application to the issue under consideration.
54. At this stage, it will be useful to take a very brief look at
F
the provisions with regard to sentencing and computation, re-
~
mission etc. of sentences. Section 45 of the Penal Code de-
fines "life" to mean the life of the human being, unless the con-
trary appears from the context. Section 53 enumerates punish-
ments, the first of which is death and the second, imprisonment
for life. Sections 54 and 55 give to the appropriate Government G
the power of commutation of the sentence of death and the sen-
tence of imprisonment for life respectively. Section 55A defines
"appropriate Government". Section 57 provides that in calcu-
lating fractions of terms of punishment, imprisonment for life
shall be reckoned as equivalent to imprisonment for twenty H
134 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2008] 11 S.C.R.

A years. It is now conclusively settled by a Catena. of d~cisions
that the punishment of imprisonment .for life handed down by
the Court means a sentence of jmprisonment for the convict for
the rest of his life, (See the. decisions of this Court in Gopa/
Vina yak ·Godse vs. The State of Maharashtra &others, (1961)
B 3 SCR 440 (Constitution Bench); Dalbir Singh& others vs. State
oi Punjab, (1979) 3 SCC 745; Maru Ram vs. Union of India,
(1981') 1 SCC 107 (Constitution Bench); Naib Singh vs. State
of Punjab, (1983) 2 SCC 454; Ashok Kumar alias Golu vs.
Union of India, (1991) 3 SCC 498; Laxm'an Naskar (Life Con-_
c vict) VS; State of"WB.,, (2000) 7 sec 626,; Zahid Hussein VS.
State of West Bengal, (2001) 3 SCC 750; Ka11Jalanantha vs ..
State of Tamil Nadu, (2005) 5 SCC 194; Mohd.Munna, vs.
Union of/ndia, (2005) 7 SCC 416 and C.A Pious vs. State. of
Kera/a, (2007) 8 SCC 312).
D 55. It is equally well-settled that' Section 57 ·of the Penal
Code does not in any way limit the punishment of imprisonment
for life to a term of twenty years. Section 57 is only for calculat-
i'ng fractions of terms of punishment and provides that impris-
onment for life shall be reckoned as equivalent to imprisonment
E for twenty years. (See : Gopal Vinayak Godse (supra) and
Ashok Kumar alias Golu (supra). The object and purpose of
Section 57 will be clear by simply referring to Sections 65, 116,
119, 129 and 511 of the Penal Code.
56. This takes us to the issue of computation and remis-
F sion etc. of sentences. The provisions in regard to computa-
tion, remission, suspension etc. are to be found both in the Con-
stitution and in the statutes. Articles .72 and 161 ofthe Constitu-
tion deal with the powers of the President and the Governors of
the State respectively to grant pardons, reprieves, respites or
G remissions of punishment or to suspend, remit or commute the
sentence of any person convicted of any offence. Here it need:;
to be made absolutely clear that this judgment is not concerned
at all with the Constitutional provisions that are in the nature of
the State's sovereign power. Whal is said hereinafter relates
H only to provisions of commutation, remission etc. as contained
SWAMY SHRADDANANDA@ MURALI MANOHAR MISHRA 135
v. STATE OF KARNATAKA [AFTAB ALAM,J.]

in the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Prisons Acts and A
the Rules framed by the different States.
57. Section 432 of the Code of Criminal Procedure deals
with the power to suspend or remit sentences and Section 433
with the power to commute sentences. Section 433A, that was·
B
inserted in the Code by an amendment made in 1978, imposes
restriction on powers of remission or commutation in certain
cases. It reads as follows:
"Restriction on powers of remission orcomputation in
certain cases - Notwithstanding anything contai~ed in c
section 432, where a sentence ofimprisonment for life is
imposed on conviction of a person for an offence for which
death is one of the punishment provided by laws or where
a sentence of death imposed on a person has been
commuted under section 433 into one of imprisonment D
for life, such person shall not be released from prison
unless he had at least fourteen years of imprisonment."
Section 434 gives concurrent power to the Central Gov-
ernment in case of death sentence and Section 435 provides
that in certain cases the State Government must act only after E
consultation with the Central Government.
58. From the Prison Act and the·Rules it appears that for
good conduct and for doing certain duties etc. inside the jail the
prisoners are given some days' remission on a monthly, quar-
F
terly or annual. basis. The days of remission so earned by a
~
prisoner are added to the period of his actual imprisonment
(including the period undergone as an under trial) to make up
the term of sentence awarded by the Court. This being the po-
sition, the first question.that arises in mind is how remission
can be applied to imprisonment to~ life, The way in which re- G
mission is allowed, it can only apply to a fixed term and life
imprisonment, being for the rest of life, is by nature indete.rmi-
-'.., nate.

59. Mr. U. U. Lalit, learned counsel appearing for the In- H
136 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2008] 11 S.C.R.

A formant, suggested that for applying remission to a sentence of
imprisonment for life it would be necessary to first commute the
sentence to a fixed term, say for a term of 20 years and then to
apply the remissions earned by the prisoner to the commuted
period and that would work out to 14 years of actual incarcera-
B tion.
60. To throw light on the question Mr. Hegde submitted a
note on remission of sentences of imprisonment as followed in
the State of Karnataka, with specific reference to the facts of
this case. The note also encloses the relevant extracts from the
C Karnataka Prison Rules, 1974 and the Karnataka Prison
Manual, 1978. Chapter XI I of the Karnataka Prison Manual deals
with the remission system; Rule 215 defines remi~sion of sen-
tence and provides for three kinds of remissions, namely, ordi-
nary remission, special remission and remission by the State
D Government. But what is significant for our purpose is the stipu-
lation made in Rule 214(c) which reads as follows:
"The sentence of all prisoners sentenced to imprisonment
for life or to more than 20 years imprisonment in the
aggregate to imprisonment for life and imprisonment for
E
exceeding in the aggregate 20 years, shall for the these
Rules be deemed to be sentence of imprisonment for 20
years.
(Emphasis added)
F
In the note submitted by the counsel it is explained that the
cases of life convicts are first considered for remission by an
Advisory Board constituted under Rule 814. The proposals for
premature release of life convicts, convicted after 18 Decem-
.ber, 1978 (the date of introduction of Section 433A in the Code)
G are placed before the Advisory Board, as provided under Gov-
ernment Order No. HD 92 PRR 88, dated 17 July, 1989 on
completion of 13 years and 8 months of imprisonment includ-
ing the under trial period. The recommendations of the Board
go to the Inspector General of Prisons together with all the
H records and are finally placed before the Government for con-
SWAMY SHRADDANANDA@ MURALI MANOHAR MISHRA 137
v. STATE OF KARNATAKA [AFTAB ALAM,J.]
)...
sidering the premature release of the prisoners on completing A
14 years of imprisonment. The State Government considers the
recommendations of the Advisory Board and gives directions.
either for the forthwith release of the prisoner or that the pris-
oner would be released in the ordinary course on the expiry of
the sentence, less the period of remission earned. In case of a B
..,. life convict if no order of premature release is passed there can
be no release by the mere lapse of time since a life sentence is
for the rest of life.
61. To the question whether any specific orders are passed
by the Government to commute the sentence of life imprison-
c
ment to imprisonment for 20 years or less, the answer is given
in the note, as follows:
"In addition to what is stated in para 3.1, -it may be added
that cases of life imprisonment pass through the Advisory D
Board and their recommendations are examined by the
Head of the Department viz., Additional Director General
.l
of Police and Inspector General of Prisons who later
(
forwards them to the Government for passing final orders.
That is how the sentence of life imprisonment is commuted
E
for a term of 20 years or less as per provisions of Sections
54 and 55 of the IPC and Section 433A Cr. P. C."

It is further stated in the note as follows:

"Experience shows that in respect of life convicts an
F
assumption can be made that the total sentence is 20
years and if the convict earns all categories of remissions
in the normal course it may come to 6 years which is less
than one third of 20 years. This is also in consonance with
Order 214(C) of the Prisons Manual which for the purposes
of the rules deems a sentence of imprisonment for life to G
be a sentence of imprisonment for twenty years."
[Emphasis added]
~
In the note, it is further stated that in the event the appellant's
sentence is modified to life imprisonment, his case for prema- H
138 SUPREME.COURT REPORTS [200~] 11 S.C.R.

A· ture'release would come up before the Advisory Board in Janu- -"'
ary•2009. The Board shall then make its recommendation in
light' of the instructions contained in Chapter XLIV of the
Karnataka·Prisons Manual. The recommendation of the Board
will be examined by the Head of the Department and thereafter
B the State Government will pass appropriate orders regarding
commutation of his sentence. ~

62. We· also got some enquiries made on the issue of
premature release of a life convict in the State- of Bihar and
came to learn that the process follows basically a similar pat-
c tern. In Bihar too the order for early release of a convicted pris-
oner is passed by the State Government in the Department of
Law (Justice) on the basis of recommendations made by the
Bihar State Sentence Remission Board. But there also the sig-
nificant thing is the conversion of life imprisonment into impris-
D onment for a fixed term. In this regard the Government Letter
No.A/PM~03/81-550 dated 21 January, 1984 was brought to
our notice. The letter begins _by stating the Government deci- J. '
sion that for grant of remission to a life convict and for his re-
lease from prison, imprisonment for life will be deemed to be
E imprisonment for a term of 20 years. Then in paragraph 1 in
the letter, in its original form itwas stated that a life convict would
not be entitled to the benefit of set off under Section 428 of the
Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 for the period of incarcera-
tion as an under trial. Paragraph 1 of the letter was, however,
F deleted by letter No. 3115 dated 23 May, 1985 following the
decision of this Court in Bhagira~h vs. Delhi Administration (su-
pra). Paragraph 2 of the letter as it originally stood stipulated ~
that an accused who is given the punishment of imprisonment
for life in a capital offence or whose death sentence is com-
G muted to life imprisonment under Section 433 of the Code as
well as an accused who was awarded life sentence after 18
December, 1978 would be released from prison (a) only on
completion of 14 years of actual imprisonment; and (b) when ).-
the total period of their imprisonment and the days of remission
add up to 20 years. Paragraph 2 of this letter too was later de-
H
SWAMY SHRADDANANDA@ MURALI MANOHAR Ml_SHRA 139
,l v. STATE OF KARNATAKA [AFTAB ALAM,J.]

leted by Government letter No. 2939, dated 29 June, 2007 that A
provided that the decision to release a convict undergoing life
imprisonment for a capital offence or whose death sentence is
commuted to life imprisonment would be taken by the State
Government or by the State Sentence Remission Board con-
stituted by the Government. B
~

63. It is thus to be seen that both in Karnataka and Bihar
remission is granted to life convicts by deemed conversion of
life imprisonment into a fixed term of 20 years. The deemed
conversion of life imprisonment into one for fixed term by ex-
ecutive orders issued by the State Governments apparently flies
c
in the face of a long line of decisions by this Court and we are
afraid no provision of law was brought to our notice to sanction
such a course. It is thus to be seen that life convicts are granted
remission and released from prison on completing the fourteen
year term without any sound legal basis. One can safely as- D
J sume that the position would be no better in the other States.
This Court can also take judicial notice of the fact that remis-
sion is allowed to life convicts in the most mechanical manner
without any sociological or psychiatric appraisal of the convict
and without any proper assessment as to the effect of the early E
release of a particular convict on the society. The grant of re-
mission is the rule and remission is denied, one may say, in the
rarest of the rare cases.
64. Here, it may be noted that this has been the positio·n
F
_. for a very long time. As far back as in 1973, in Jagmohan Singh
(supra) a Constitution Bench of this Court made the following
observation:
"In the context of our criminal law which punishes murderer,
one cannot ignore the fact that life imprisonment works G
out in most cases to a dozen years of imprisonment and
it may be seriously questioned whether that sole
alternative will be an adequate substitute for the death
penalty."
(Emphasis added) H
140 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2008] 11 S.C.R.

A Five years after Jagmohan, Section 433A was inserted
in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 imposing a restric-
tion on the power of remission or commutation in certain cases.
After the introduction of Section 433A another Constitution
Bench of this Court in Bachan Singh (supra) made the follow-
s ing observation: ~

"1.t may be recalled that in Jagmohan this Court had observed
that, in practice, life imprisonment amounts to·12 years in
prison. Now, Section 433A restricts the power of remission
and commutation conferred on the appropriate Government
c under Sections 432 and 433, so that a person who is
sentenced to imprisonment for life or whose death sentence
· is commuted to imprisonment for life must serve actual
imprisonment for a minimum of 14 years."
o' Thus all that is changed by Section 433A is that before its
insertion an imprisonment for life in most cases worked out to a
dozen years of imprisonment and after its introduction it works
out to .fourteen years' imprisonment. But the observation in
Jagmohan that this cannot be accepted as an adequate sub-
E st.itute for the death penalty still holds true.
65. Earlier in this judgment it was noted that the decision
in Shri Bhagwan (supra) there is a useful discussion on the le-
gality of remission in the case of life convicts. The judgment in
Shri Bhagwan, in paragraph 22, refers to and quotes from the
F earlier decision in State of M.P vs. Ratan Singh (supra) which
in turn quotes a passage from the Constitution Bench decision
iri Gopal Vinayek Godse (supra). It will be profitable to repro-
duce. here the extract from Ratan Singh:
"4. As regards the first point, namely, that the prisoner
G could be released automatically on the expiry of 20 years
under the Punjab Jail Manual or the Rules framed under
the Prisons Act, the matter is no longer res integra and
stands concluded by a decision of this Court in Gopal
Vinayak Godse v. State of Maharashtra, (1961) 3 SCR
H 440 where the Court, following a decision of the Privy
SWAMY SHRADDANANDA@ MURALI MANOHAR MISHRA 141
v. STATE OF KARNATAKA [AFTAB ALAM,J.]

Counsel in Pandit Kishori Lal v. King Emperor, AIR 1954 A
PC 64 observed as follows:
"Under that section a person transported for life or any
otherterms before the enactment of the said section would
be treated as a person sentenced to rigorous
8
imprisonment for life or for the said term.
If so the next question is whether there is any provision of
law where under a sentence for life imprisonment, without
any formal remission by appropriate Government, can be
automatically treated as one for a definite period. No such C
provision is found in the Indian Penal Code, Code of
Criminal Procedure or the Prisons Act.
*****
A sentence of transportation for life or imprisonment for o
J.
life must prima facie be treated as transportation or
imprisonment for the whole of the remaining period of the
·convicted person's natural life".
The Court further observed thus:
E
"But the Prisons Act does not confer on any authority a
power to commute or remit sentences; it provides only for
the regulation of prisons and for the treatment of prisoners
confined therein. Section 59 of the Prisons Act confers a
power on the State Government to make rules, inter alia, F
for rewards for good conduct. Therefore, the rules made
under the Act should be construed within the scope of the
ambit of the Act. ..... Under the said rules the order of an
appropriate Government under Section 401 Criminal
Procedure Code, are a pre-requisite for a release. No
other rule has been brought to our notice which confers an G
indefeasible right on a prisoner sentenced to transportation
for life to an unconditional release on the expiry of a
particular term including remissions. The rules under the
Prisons Act do not substitute a lesser sentence for a
sentence of transportation for life. H
142 . SUPREME COURT REPORTS °[2008] .11 S. C.R.

A The question of remission is exclusively within the province
of the appropriate Government; and in this case it is
admitted that, though the appropriate Government made
certain remissions under Section 401 of the Code of
Criminal Procedure·, it did not remit the entire sentence.
B We, therefore, hold that the petitioner has not yet acquired
any right to release'. ~·

It is, therefore, manifest from the decision of this Court that
the Ri.Jies framed under the Prisons Act or under the Jail
Manual do not affect the total period which
. the prisoner has
c ... . .

~o suffer but merely amount to administrative instructions
regarding the various remissions to be given to the prisoner
from time to time in accordance with the rules. This Court
further pointed out that the question of remission of the
entire sentence or a part of it lies within the exclusive domain
D of the appropriate Government ·under Section 401 of the
·code of Cdmirial Procedure and neither Section 57 of the
l.ndia·ri Penal Code nor ..any Hules or local Acts can stultify·
the effect of the sentence of life imprisonment given by the
court under the Indian Penal Code. In other words, this Court
E has clearly held that a sentence for life would ensure till the
lifetime of the accused as it is not possible to fix a particular
: 'period the prisoner's death and remissions given under
the Rules could not be regarded as a -substitute for a
sentence of transportation for life." ·
F Further, in paragraph 23, the judgment i.n Shri Bh.agwan
observed as .follows:
'"In Maru Rain vs. Union of India, (1981) 1 SCC 107, a
Constitution· Bench of this Court reiterated the aforesaid
G position .and observed that the inevitable conclusion is
that sin·ce in Section 433A we deal only with life sentences, \
remissions lead nowhere and cannot entitle·· a prisoner
to release. Further, in Laxman Naskar (Life Convict) vs. ;...

State of WB. & Anr, (2000) 7 SCC 626, after referring to
the deCision· of the case of Gopal Vinayak Godse vs.
H
SWAMY SHRAI;:>DANANDA@ MURALI MANOHAR MISHRA 143
v. STATE OF KARNATAKA [AFTAB ALAM,J.]

State of Maharashtra, (1961) 3 SCR 440, the court A
reiterated that sentence for "imprisonment for life" ordinarily
means imprisonment for the whole of the remaining period
of the convicted person's natural life; that a convict
undergoing such sentence may earn remissions of his
part of sentence under the Prison Rules but such B
..J
remissions in the absence of an order of an appropriate
Government remitting the entire balance of his sentence
under this section does not entitled the convict to be
·' released automatically before the full life term if served. It
was observed that though under the relevant Rules a c
sentence for imprisonment for life is equated with the
definite period of 20 years, there is no indefeasible right
of such prisoner to be unconditionally released on the
expiry of such particular term, including remissions and
that is only for the purpose of working out the remissions D
that the said sentence is equated with definite period and
" )
not for any other purpose."
The legal position as enunciated in Pandit Kishori Lal, Gopal
Vinayak Godse, Maru Ram, Ratan Singh and Shri Bhagwan and
the unsound way in which remission is actually allowed in cases of E
life imprisonment make out a very strong case to make a special
category for the very few cases where the death penalty might be
substituted by the punishment of imprisonment for life or imprison-
ment for a term in excess of fourteen years and to put that category
beyond the application of remission. F
66. The matter may be looked at from a slightly different
angle. The issue of sentencing has two aspects. A sentence
may be excessive and unduly harsh or it may be highly dispro-
portionately inadequate. When an appellant comes to this court
carrying a death sentence awarded by the trial court and con- G
firmed by the High Court, this Court may find, as in the present
~
appeal, that the case just falls short of the rarest of the rare
,
catGgory and may feel somewhat reluctant in endorsing the death
sentence. But at the same time, having regard to the nature of
the crime, the Court may strongly feel that a sentence of life im- H
144 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2oos1 11 s. c...R
A

A prisonmentthat subject to remission normally works out to a term
of 14 years would be grossly disproportionate and inadequate.
Whatthen the Court should do? If the Court's option is limited
only to two punishments, one a sentence of imprisonment, for all r
B
intent~ and purposes, of not more than 14 years and the other
death, the court may feel tempted and find itself nudged into en-
t '

~
dorsing· the death penalty. Such a course would indeed be di-
'-
sastrous. A far" more just, reasonable and proper course would
be to expahd the options arid to take ove'rcwhat,·as a matter of
fact; lawfully belongs to the court, f.e., the vast hiatus between 14
years' ·imprisonment and death. It needs to be emphasized that
c the Court would take recourse to the expanded option primarily
because in the facts of the case, the sentence of 14 years im- r-
prisonment would amountto no punishment at all.
I-
67. Further, the formalisation of a special category of sen-
D tence, though.for an extremely few number of cas·es, shall have t
the great advantage of having the death penalty on the statute ti
-~
book but to actually use it as little as possible, really in the rar-
est of the rare cases. This would only be a reassertion of the
Constitutioff Bench decision in Bachan Singh (supra) besides
~
being in accord with the modern trends in penology.
E
68. In light of the discussions made above we are clearly
of the view that there is a good and strong basis for the Court to
substitute a death sentence by life imprisonment or by a term in
excess of fourteen years and further to direct that the convict
must not be released from the prison for the rest of his life or for
F
the actual term as specified in the order, as the case may be. ~
69: In conclusion we agree with the view taken by Sinha J.
We accordingly substitute the death sentence given to the ap- t
pellant by the trial court and confirmed by the High court by im-
G prisonment for life and direct that he shall not be released from '
prison till the rest of his life. t-
70. This. appeal. stands disposed off with the aforesaid >-
;.
directions and observations. ,.

H
K.K.T Appeal disposed of. I
,<--