Young age of victims not sole criteria to award death sentence: SC

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday observed that the low age of victims in rape-and-murder cases has not been considered as the "only or sufficient factor by this court" for imposing the death penalty, as per an IANS report.

The top court made this observation while commuting the death sentence of a man, convicted for rape and murder of a 5-year-old girl, to life imprisonment.

A bench comprising Justices L. Nageswara Rao, Sanjiv Khanna, and B. R. Gavai referred to the top court's verdict in another case in which it had surveyed 67 judgments of the Supreme Court in the past 40 years in which death sentence was imposed by the trial court or the High Court for offences under Sections 376 (rape) and 302 (murder), and where the age of victims was below 16 years.

Out of 67 cases, in at least 51 cases the victims were below 12 years, and in 12 out of those 51 cases, the death sentence was initially awarded. But, in review, in three cases, the death penalty was commuted to a life sentence.

The top court said there is no doubt that the appellant has committed an abhorrent crime, and for this incarceration for life will serve as sufficient punishment and penitence for his actions.

The bench noted that it has been rightly pointed out by the convict's counsel that the trial court noticed he was of young age (23/25 years) hailing from a very poor family but did not consider it as a mitigating factor.

"The high court has noted that there are no mitigating circumstances at all. We find this observation incorrect," observed the bench.

The top court judgment came on an appeal of Irappa Siddappa, convicted and sentenced to death by a trial court. In March 2017, the Karnataka High Court confirmed the trial court's decision. Siddappa moved the top court challenging the high court order.

He was convicted for kidnapping, rape and murder of a five-year-old girl in the village of Khanapur in Karnataka in 2010. Later, he had thrown the body of the victim in a bag into a stream, named Bennihalla.

Commuting accused life imprisonment of a period of 30 years, the top court said: "We find sufficient mitigating factors to commute the sentence of death imposed by the Sessions Court and confirmed by the High Court into imprisonment for life, with the direction that the appellant shall not be entitled to premature release/remission for the offence under Section 302 (murder) of the Code until he has undergone actual imprisonment for at least 30 years."

The top court directed that the sentences shall run concurrently and not consecutively.