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Vasanta Sampat Dupare v. State of Maharashtra

Review Petition (Criminal) · Neutral citation not assigned (Review Petition (Criminal) Nos. 637-638 of 2015, in Criminal Appeal Nos. 2486-2487 of 2014)Decided 3 May 2017
Review Petition (Criminal) Nos. 637-638 of 2015, in Criminal Appeal Nos. 2486-2487 of 2014
Justice Dipak Misra · Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman · Justice Uday Umesh Lalit

Background

In 2014, the Supreme Court had affirmed the petitioner's conviction and death sentence for the rape and murder of a four-year-old girl, whom he had lured away with chocolates before battering her to death with stones. Following a later Supreme Court ruling allowing oral hearings in death-sentence review petitions, this review was taken up, and the petitioner was separately permitted to place on record material about his conduct and reform in jail (such as completing educational courses) to argue that his death sentence should be commuted to life imprisonment.

Decision Breakdown

The Court reaffirmed the settled framework from Bachan Singh and Machhi Singh for death sentencing: that life imprisonment is the rule and death the exception, to be imposed only in the "rarest of rare" cases after weighing aggravating and mitigating circumstances together. It rejected the argument that the State's failure to affirmatively prove the petitioner could not be reformed was fatal, holding this is only one factor to weigh, not a decisive bar. Taking into account the extreme brutality of the crime, the complete breach of trust (the child called him "uncle"), the absence of remorse, and the petitioner's history of other pending criminal cases, the Court found the post-conviction evidence of reform insufficient to outweigh the aggravating factors. It accordingly dismissed the review petitions and upheld the death sentence.

Lesson Learnt

A review petition against a death sentence allows the convict a genuine fresh hearing on sentencing factors, but good conduct or reform shown in prison after conviction will not automatically override extremely aggravating facts about the crime itself: courts weigh both sides together, not either in isolation.

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

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