INDIA: SC CAN FIX TENURE OF LIFE TERM IN LIEU OF DEATH PENALTY

the Indian Supreme Court ruled that in order to minimize the use of death penalty, it has the power to fix tenure of life imprisonment while substituting it for death sentence. A bench comprising Justices B N Agrawal, G S Singhvi and Aftab Alam, while substituting life imprisonment for death sentence, ruled that the appellant Murli Manohar Mishra alias Swami Shraddhananda shall remain in jail till death. The apex court in its judgment noted, “further formalization 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 as possible, really in the rarest of the rare cases.” “In light of the discussions made 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 14 years.” Swami was sentenced to death for burying alive his wife in the backyard of his house after administering some sedative to her. The death sentence was confirmed by Karnataka High Court. The victim, Shakereh, was the ex-wife of former Indian Ambassador to Iran Akbar Khaleeli.