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Dattatraya @ Datta Ambo Rokade v. The State of Maharashtra

Criminal Appeal · 2019 INSC 247Decided 21 Feb 2019
Criminal Appeal Nos. 1110-1111 of 2015
Justice N.V. Ramana · Justice Deepak Gupta · Justice Indira Banerjee

Background

The appellant was convicted and sentenced to death by the trial court, and the conviction and death sentence were confirmed by the Bombay High Court, for the abduction, rape and murder of a five-year-old girl who had gone missing from outside her home while her parents were at work. The victim was later found dead with injuries, including laceration of the vagina and anus, indicating sexual assault, and the appellant was convicted under multiple provisions of the Indian Penal Code (including murder and kidnapping) together with the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The appeal to the Supreme Court challenged both the conviction and, specifically, the appropriateness of the death sentence.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court found that while the trial court had imposed the death penalty, it had failed to properly conduct the mandatory sentencing hearing under Section 235(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure: it did not specifically inform the accused that death was being considered, did not give him a real opportunity to place mitigating circumstances on record, and made no independent effort to elicit facts relevant to whether reform was possible or whether the accused would remain a continuing threat to society. Relying on precedent (including Dagdu and Santa Singh), the Court held that this denial of an effective sentencing hearing was itself a ground to set aside the death sentence, and separately found that, despite the crime's heinous and barbaric nature, it did not fall within the narrow "rarest of rare" category required for capital punishment. The Court therefore modified the sentence from death to life imprisonment for the remainder of the appellant's natural life, with no remission permitted, allowing the appeals only to that extent (the conviction itself was not disturbed).

Lesson Learnt

Even in the most horrific crimes, a court must follow the mandatory procedure of giving the accused a genuine, meaningful hearing specifically on sentencing before imposing the death penalty: failure to do so, combined with the case not meeting the strict "rarest of rare" standard, can result in the death sentence being replaced with life imprisonment without remission.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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