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Sundar @ Sundarrajan vs. State by Inspector of Police

Criminal Appeal · 2023 INSC 264Decided 21 Mar 2023
Criminal Appeal Nos. 300-301 of 2011
Hima Kohli · Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha

Background

The petitioner was convicted of kidnapping and murdering a 7-year-old child in 2009 for ransom, based on circumstantial evidence including phone records and a confession leading to recovery of the body. The trial court sentenced him to death, and both the Madras High Court and the Supreme Court confirmed the conviction and death sentence on appeal. His review petition was initially dismissed by circulation (without an oral hearing) in 2013, but was later reopened and heard in open court following a Constitution Bench ruling (Mohd. Arif) which held that death-sentence review petitions must be heard orally in court, not disposed of on paper.

Decision Breakdown

The Court found no error apparent on the record regarding the finding of guilt and declined to disturb the conviction, also rejecting the "lingering/residual doubt" theory as a ground to doubt guilt in circumstantial evidence cases. However, it found that neither the trial court nor the appellate courts had properly conducted a separate mitigation exercise before imposing death, as required by Section 235(2) CrPC and settled precedent (Bachan Singh). Considering mitigating factors. The petitioner was about 23 at the time of the offence, had no prior criminal record, had spent over 13 years in custody with largely satisfactory conduct (except one escape attempt), had health issues, and had pursued vocational education in prison. The Court held that reformation was not ruled out and death was not warranted, but ordinary life imprisonment (with the possibility of remission) was inadequate given the gruesome nature of the crime. It therefore commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment for a fixed minimum term of 20 years without remission. Separately, the Court ordered a contempt inquiry against a police officer for allegedly concealing material information about the petitioner's prison conduct from the Court.

Lesson Learnt

In death penalty cases, courts must conduct a genuine, separate hearing on sentence (considering the convict's background, age, conduct, and potential for reform) before imposing capital punishment; failure to do so can itself justify commuting a death sentence to a fixed-term life sentence, even years after the original conviction is upheld.

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

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