The Supreme Court has approved death sentence for those...

The Supreme Court has approved death sentence for those guilty of killing innocent persons of a particular community, religion or class. In a 2:1 majority verdict, it upheld death sentence to the four Maoists Communist Centre's activists who killed 35 members of the upper castes in Bihar a decade ago.
While Justice M B Shah differed with the majority verdict, Justice B N Agrawal and Justice Arijit Pasayat noted that in the unfortunate gruesome carnage 35 persons of a community, "which was the most powerful in the state at one point of time and ruled Bihar for decades, have been massacred with the unholy alliance of members of another community leading to more or less an outburst of caste war between haves and have-nots".
Without referring to the recent killings of innocent persons belonging to different communities in the name of religion, the judge said: "In a country like ours, where discrimination on the ground of caste or religion is taboo, taking lives of persons belonging to another caste or religion is bound to have dangerous and reactive effect on the society at large".