Court Duty Bound To Consider Possibility Of Reformation Even If Accused Remains Silent

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• On Friday, a bench consisting of Justices L Nageswara Rao, BR Gavai and BV Nagarathna, permitted the review petitions filed by 2 death-row convicts to change into capital punishment forced on them to life imprisonment for a term of 30 years.
• It was also mentioned that it is necessary for the courts to collect relevant information considering the possibility of reformation of the convicts. Only after doing so, the Court can impose the very harsh punishment of death sentence.

DETAILS

• Name of the Case : Mofil Khan and another v. The State of Jharkhand
• Foundation of the Case

1. A review petition was filed by Mofil Khan and Mobarak Khan who were sentenced to death for committing the crime of murder of 8 people in the year 2007.
2. The courts stated that the case of murder of eight persons belonging to the family of the complainants, including minor children and a physically weak person comes under the category of “rarest of rarest” cases which should be given capital punishment.
3. The court further observed that the possibility of reformation was not taken into consideration while granting a death sentence.
4. The court’s final decision in this case was that the Petitioners should be given a life imprisonment sentence for 30 years, not capital punishment.

QUESTIONS

• Do you agree with the court’s decision to convert the death sentence into life imprisonment, in regards to such a heinous crime ?
• Do you think this case should fall into the category of “rarest of rarest” case of capital punishment ?