Supreme Court: Calls for End to Leniency for Death Row Convicts

In a stark moment of judicial self-reflection, the Supreme Court on Thursday criticised its habit of showing leniency to murder convicts, particularly those facing the death penalty.A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Sheel Nagu remarked that the Court's "forgiving nature" has at times backfired and caused problems. Justice Datta opined that the court needs to re-evaluate its traditional restraint when examining whether the death penalty should be awarded in murder cases."Times have changed. In earlier days murder leading to death (sentence) was on the basis of rarest of rare cases, because murders were rare. Is it the same now? Now murder is not a rare (offence)," Justice Datta observed.The judge recounted a past case where the Supreme Court commuted the death sentence of a convict, only for him to commit another horrific crime after being released on parole."It is because of our forgiving nature that India is facing these problems. Forgive, forgive, forgive, you have to draw a line somewhere. This court commuted death sentence in a case where a father raped and murdered his elder daughter. (He) goes to jail on life imprisonment on the basis of the mother’s testimony. After some years, the father comes out on parole and murders the mother in front of his younger daughter. On the younger daughter’s testimony, he is given death sentence. And then the death sentence is commuted to life sentence by the Supreme Court on the ground that he did not murder the younger child. Thi