Rarest Of The Rare

Verdict in Priyadarshini Mattoo's case is out. Her killer gets a LIFE TERM and not a death sentence. I am really bothered by the Rarest of the Rare doctrine. Earlier the principle was that in most of the murder cases, the punishment was Death Sentence and in rarest of the rare cases was it a Life Term.

In Bachan Singh vs State of Punjab, the doctrine of the rarest of the rare was brought into existence which provided that now the bench mark would be a Life Term and only in rarest of the rare cases would there be a Death Sentence and because of this mostly all the convicts get away with a Life Term which gets reduced to 14 years or 20 years at times and before even having the sentence executed, their mercy petitions keep on lying on the President's desk for years at times. I am not sympathizing with the convicts by saying this.

I dont think that bringing in the Rarest of the Rare doctrine has served any purpose whatsoever. Crime rate, if not gone up, has not come down also.

Laws of a country are made to serve the practical purpose. They are not ornamental. The death sentence, if not anything else, at least has a fear which life term does not.

This was just a synopsis. I will be coming with more on this point.

MTC